And being overall terrible cartoon reboots. -_-

Kinda, sorta. 

Marketing costs are generally covered by post-theaterical release windows (TV rights, video on demand, and ultimately streaming), or should be, if you've overspent on marketing that way you're kinda screwed. In Mario's case (and as with many big budget blockbusters) there's also money from merchandising to take into account. 

It kind of sucks for Hollywood that the DVD market went to shit, that was for a long time actually a bigger money maker for studios than even box office take and a reliable way for them to earn their money back. When you look at how much money the DVD/Blu-Ray market made for movies, it's almost kind of crazy that Hollywood studios did not stand firm and refuse to support streaming services, because if they could have maintained the DVD/Blu-Ray setup they would been making way more money. 

I'm just looking at DVD/Blu-Ray sales for like The Dark Knight (2008) ... 19.2 million copies sold in the US market alone, at lets say a $10 profit margin per unit for the studio, that's $192 million in profit on a film like that just from the US market alone, then probably add another $150 million in sales from global market ... you're making like $350 million just from the DVD/BR sales, which would more than cover all production and marketing expenses. 

While I get the convenience factor for people, if Hollywood studios had to do it again, I think they would stand steadfast in not giving films to Netflix. They could have maintained the home video control, even if it became a setup where people purchased movies digitally ($3.99 to rent, $14.99-$24.99 to buy) only. 

Another reason to support BluRay releases!!

Unfortunately that ship has sailed probably, Blu-Ray buyers are a niche. 

The play for the movie studios in the long term likely was always to just offer movies digitally but control all the profit, instead they let Netflix change the entire equation using their own content to devalue their own bottom line (lol). 

If they had set up a system around 2010 where say you could pay $24.99 for first run movies (that eventually get discounted to $14.99) and you had a system where like $12/month allowed you to "rent" 3-4 movies a month ($3/rental for older films, $4/for new releases), that could've been a decent system that made them a lot of money while still being better for the consumer than the standard "Blockbuster Video for rentals + buying physical media" media of the 2000s. 

Then Streaming services need to quit removing things we want to watch. Looking at you, Disney+.

Got to see the movie yesterday! I thought it was cute, and fun. Definitely recommended for kids, families, and also Nintendroids of all degrees, obviously. A few brief notes I might add though:

-If you, like seemingly most critics, are expecting this to be like a Pixar type animated motion picture experience that's equal parts fun for the kids and emotionally resonant for adults, and just funny for everyone, don't. It's not that. This is a standard-issue Illumination (you know, Minions) type picture. It's cute and silly and safe and nothing more, kind of like the Mario games usually are.

-The movie has no real story. It's just Mario and Peach set out to rescue Luigi from Bowser and along the way add a couple other notable allies. There's are exactly two minor twists along the way that I won't spoil for you, but certainly nothing worth writing home about. The narrative really doesn't matter though. This is a very action-focused movie that works reasonably well owing to its very quick pacing. It's a relatively short film by modern standards, which forces events to keep moving along quickly, and that sustains your attention, together with the spectacle of it all.

-To me, the kart-racing scenes in particular (especially Rainbow Road and the Kong kingdom) were a highlight, so look forward to those!

-Go see this in theaters. Don't wait for home viewing. It's one of those spectacle-driven movies that's definitely meant to be seen on the big screen.

-Some reviews have complained about Chris Pratt's fake Italian accent. You know, when the film opened on that, I indeed found it so grating that within seconds I concluded that I'd have to walk out early if it continued for long because there's no way I could deal with 85 minutes of that (I'm subtracting the credits from the runtime math, obviously), or even 20. Fortunately though, it's employment turned out to confined to a commercial for the Mario Bros. plumbing service Mario and Luigi were running in Brooklyn amounting to less than one minute and isn't used afterward, so no big.

-Much was made of the songs in the movie (like Bowser's ballad) in some reviews. I felt a little ripped off when I actually saw the movie after reading those reviews though because they're actually all pretty short. Don't expect any Disney-length musical numbers here like I did.

-Yes, Jack Black's voicing and characterization of Bowser is a highlight. I can't imagine anyone else being more perfect for the role. I have to confess though that I found the very out-of-place nihilist Luma character the funniest and most enjoyable. It's lines were the only ones I actually laughed at. It's really the only glimpse of the directors' sense of humor we get in the movie, unfortunately. When I saw that the movie was being directed by the same guys who did Teen Titans Go!, I had admittedly hoped for more of a Paper Mario type of experience with a bit more narrative and that particular kind of through the looking glass humor and was a bit disappointed by the fact that the movie instead plays just about everything completely safe. Except for this one character. *snickers*

-Yes, I see a trend developing here of consumers starting to really respond to video game-inspired television shows and movies too. Perhaps that will be the next big manifestation of geek chic in the larger entertainment world, displacing comic book-inspired shows and films.

I guess that's all.

I think a Zelda movie (whatever form that takes, live action or animated) is probably now on the docket for what Miyamoto has on his plate.

They've set up the baseline for how Mario and even to an extent a DK would work in animation, Zelda is now going to be the next big challenge for Miyamoto I think. That's the challenge he will want, to now guide Zelda to being a big ticket theatrical and how and what that exactly looks like.

Luckily for them, Zelda has better story potential and an absolute banger of a soundtrack/score that is going to be so epic.

It'd need to be at least half an hour longer than the Mario movie, and it might be difficult to sell to kids considering how much darker it'll be too. Sure the Mario movie got surprisingly dark at times, but not to the point that it had anything as gruesome as this.

I mean, Ocarina of Time still sold to kids. Kids don't mind darker things in their movies, the problem is actually with the parents who think they do.

Anyway. Can't wait to see Link riding into Ganon's Castle to the sound of Holding Out For a Hero.

62% of the Mario Movie's audience was 18+ in the US ... so Nintendo has actually a majority fan base of adults (not kids). Just like Marvel movies do, at one time comic books and characters like Batman (DC) and Spider-Man (Marvel) were supposed to be "kids characters", that's obviously not the case now. 

Zelda can easily appeal to kids, when I was a kid I liked the darker Batman movies, so did basically every kid. Even the Ninja Turtles movie (the first one) was fairly dark and violent. But make no mistake, the majority audience for a Zelda movie is 18+. The story trailer for BoTW is already crazy epic. 

The music for Zelda is so epic too, it's going to be a huge advantage for whoever is scoring the film.