It's a big week for fans of Nintendo's (NTDOY 2.44%) Super Mario. The baddie-battling, princess-rescuing, pipe-spelunking icon of the gaming world gets his own full-length animated feature on Wednesday. The Super Mario Bros. Movie -- put out by Comcast's Universal Studios -- hits all of the right notes of a springtime blockbuster.
Nintendo investors can use the boost. The shares hit a 35-month low last month. Movie theater chains can also use some good news. Box office receipts continue to lag pre-pandemic ticket sales. Despite a healthy trickle of hits, domestic admissions so far this year are 27% below where exhibitors were at this point in 2019. It's an even more problematic 39% decline from 2018 levels.
Can a pair of plumber brothers with a sense of adventure get Nintendo and the multiplex industry back on track? It's time to see if they can level up and defeat the end boss.
Take a bow, Bowser
Let's start with the bad news. The initial critic reviews aren't very encouraging. Just 55% of the seasoned film reviewers tracked by Rotten Tomatoes are recommending the new movie. The good news is that the initial audience score is clocking in at a whopping 98% approval score. It's still early in terms of audience reviews, stemming largely from diehard fans who saw the midnight screening late on Tuesday evening. The figure will likely head lower, but that's a strong start. It's audiences after all -- and not critics -- who buy tickets.
The even better news is that the Super Mario Bros. games have been a staple since the 1980s. We're talking about three generations of young or nostalgic gamers as a potential audience. As an animated feature, it's also not very long. The movie clocks in at just 92 minutes including the credits. This is welcome news for the multiplex industry, as it can screen the movie more times on a typical day than the average silver screen epic that can be two or even three hours long.
Image source: Getty Images.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie could also provide the elixir that exhibitors have been thirsting for lately. Big movies are having strong openings, but they fizzle out quicker than they used to. It's a safe bet that young families and some hardcore franchise fans may go for repeat viewings. Mario may be shorter than his brother Luigi, but he could have long legs here.
Obviously the movie's long-term prospects are more about Nintendo than theater owners. Nintendo will be a stronger position as it rolls out new games. There are also merchandising opportunities that should continue to resonate into this year's holiday shopping season. We're also due for a new Nintendo console soon, and the bigger the Super Mario franchise becomes, the stronger its prospects are for success on that front.
Nintendo and its movie partner Comcast are also in the process of opening Super Nintendo World lands at Universal Studios theme parks across the world. In short, Nintendo is so much more than a video game stock these days. It's an ecosystem. A big movie will be about so much more than just the one-time split of ticket sales. It's a green pipe that leads to new lands -- and if Nintendo learns to master its moves -- a celebratory victory screen.
