My only criticism of the movie is that it went by too fast. The pace was moving like it was eating one of those spicy peppers Yoshi ate from Galaxy 2 that made him go super fast. As such, some plot points and elements of the movie didn't get enough attention or development that it should have which made it feel kind of hollow and a bit of a let down. Some of these include:

They could have easily spent another 20-30 minutes developing and exploring these plot elements and they still would have had a reasonably long film at just a tick over/under 2 hours and I think the whole film would've been better for it. I only hope that there's an Extended Cut somewhere down the line w/ more scenes that address some or all of these points.

But other than that, I absolutely loved the movie and enjoyed it IMMENSELY! I had a huge smile on my face the entire way through as I pointed out each and every easter egg that I could from certain locations, power-ups, and ESPECIALLY the music!

I greatly enjoyed the cast of characters!

- Keegan Michael-Key as Toad felt as natural as breathing. Anya Taylor-Joy as Peach gave the aura of a strong and capable leader of a kingdom who's also a sweetheart at her core. Charlie Day as Luigi brought out the best traits of Luigi that we know and love him for: the cowardly little brother who's still going to give it his best effort and do all he can for his older brother despite his fear. Chris Pratt as Mario was a refreshingly grounded take on the character that was solid in its portrayal. And last but certainly NOT least: the absolute BEST part of this entire film - Jack Black as Bowser!!! Oh. My. God. He was FANTASTIC!!! The star of the movie without a doubt! 

A great film despite it's shortcomings in places - It's a solid 'B' for me. 8/10, maybe 8.5. My only advice for Nintendo and Illumination for next time (and there WILL be a next time, this movie is doing WAY too well at the box office for there not to be) would be this:

"Slow. Down. Take your time. Give these characters the moments and development they need for the audience to connect w/ them and their predicaments. This isn't the video games where we have 30-40-50 hours of gameplay in between 30-60 second cutscenes to do that - Give them time to breath and let the moment play out naturally. If the film is a little longer because of it, so be it. As long as it's great or excellent, the audience won't care how long it is. I'm not saying it has to be Endgame, Way of Water, or Return of the King. But give your characters, their story and their struggle more time to solidify themselves so that the payoff is THAT much sweeter!"

I REALLY hope that's what they plan to do since I think it's pretty safe to assume that Nintendo's film making ventures will continue from here.

I'd expect them to stick largely to Mario as they try to firmly establish themselves and carve out their own space in the film market. Two more films/sequels where we get more characters (Yoshi, Daisy, Wario, Waluigi, Bowser Jr., Koopalings, Rosalina, etc.). A couple of spinoffs, perhaps: A Luigi's Mansion movie where we meet E.Gadd (Christopher Lloyd PLZ!), maybe a Yoshi's Island movie, or a WarioWare TV series,  And, of course, we GOTTA get a Donkey Kong movie at some point

Once all those Mario related projects have come, gone, and been successful, and Nintendo has firmly cemented their presence in the film industry, THEN we'll begin to see them expand and introduce their other franchises into TV and Movies: Zelda, Kirby, Metroid, Splatoon, Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing. And maybe, JUST maybe, WAYYYY down the road - Smash Bros.

Half a billion now, didn't see that coming but it now opens up a path for Nintendo and Illumination to form a possible Disney and Pixar like 90s partnership, people are saying Zelda next but I think Pikmin is a ready made package for the same treatment.

Regarding some of their other franchises.

Zelda - I think that would work better as a TV series than a movie. But I have one very important question:
How is a Zelda movie going to work if Link doesn't talk?
At least Mario has actual lines of dialogue and sentences in games here and there as well as other venues like E3 2007 when he roasted Sony. But Link? Total mute. Always has been and likely always will be. They can't rely on grunts, facial expressions, and body language for 2 hours. They COULD try sign language. But again, could they rely on that for 2 hours? And can they even squeeze a Zelda story into 1.5-2 hours? ESPECIALLY if they adapt one of the later, more story driven games like Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword? I think a TV series would suit Zelda much better in that regard because each episode would focus more on each indivdual chapter or section within the overall story, just like they did w/ Last of Us. That way, the focus can be more on the world and people around Link rather than Link himself so you could more easily rely on those grunts, facial expressions, body and/or sign language for 30-45 minutes as opposed to 90-120.

Metroid - Absolutely can work as a movie, animated OR live action. You get the right director, screenwriters, and lead actress for Samus, and that could be an absolute thriller of a film. Each of Samus' adventures can make for the perfect setting for a science fiction/horror film (Especially Fusion and Dread).

Kirby - Well, we already know that can work as a TV show since we already had an anime during the early 2000s. Anyone remember 'Right Back At Ya'? It got 100 episodes. They did it before, they can do it again. A feature film could work as well - though they'd have to work around Kirby's lack of vocabulary as well. They have some popular points of reference to how they could approach Kirby. (Snoopy, Bambi, Gromit, etc.)

Fire Emblem - TV series. Live action OR anime could work. 

Splatoon - Could work as either a TV show or movie. TV show if it's set in modern world of Splatoon and follows a group of kids who get into typical teen drama and they use turf wars to fight it out (Think of an animated Cobra Kai, and that's how I think this would look.) Movie if it takes place during the great turf war.

Animal Crossing - Eh. Either one, I guess.

Splatoon imo would be better as a TV series, Fire Emblem could be either tbh, Pikmin is the most obvious pick because it already has Pixar like shorts that were used as marketing for P3.

The original Lion King didn't even reach 1 billion.

260mil domestic and 248mil everywhere else. Double that for domestic and triple for overseas would be 1.264 billion dollars.

I WANNA SEE A FEATURE LENGTH MOVIE IN THE STYLE OF THOSE SHORTS!!!!! ^^

I could imagine a Pikmin movie actually happening alongside another Mario movie. This actually makes a ton of sense given that its Miyamoto’s baby and that Illumination would be right at home creating scenarios for the wordless Pikmin.

It would also be a great way to open up the series on the gaming front, perhaps allowing us to visit more worlds and get different perspectives.

Like eventually leading up to a funny but charming encounter between Mario, who's fairly regular sized by human standards, and Olimar, who's almost bug-sized. Helps that Olimar's original Japanese name was Orima, which is Mario backwards.

To be fair, almost making a billion in 1994 is pretty insane. We don't really have a reference for worldwide inflation, but if we did, it'd likely still be the #1 animated movie when adjusted.