The Super Mario Bros. Movie was always going to be a financial success, but neither Nintendo nor Illumination could have been prepared for just how much money it was going to bring in. Despite its theatrical run not coming to an end quite yet, the studios behind it have decided to pull the trigger on its home launch and the movie is now available to buy digitally.
Reported by Polygon, Mario fans were able to buy a digital copy of the Mario movie through Amazon and Apple iTunes yesterday ready for when the film became available at midnight. It doesn't come cheap, though. Listed at $29.99, with no option to rent the movie instead, the Mario adaptation will cost you that much regardless of the version you want to buy.
If you'd rather wait to own a physical copy of the Mario movie, you can, and it'll potentially cost you less with the regular DVD version listed on Amazon for $19.99. The only trouble is, the physical edition of the film doesn't currently have a release date. There was a belief last month that the movie's home release had been delayed. While the digital edition has arrived a week later than expected, that delay may well be a longer one for physical copies, although it's rumored to be here by June 6.
Considering how successful the Mario movie has been so far, you can't really blame Nintendo and Illumination for rethinking when exactly it would make the film available to watch at home. Surpassing $1.2 billion at the box office, not only is the movie the fourth highest-grossing animated movie of all time, but it is closing in on the top 20 best-performing movies ever, animated or otherwise.
Even though the first official avenue through which to watch the Mario movie has only been available for a few hours, many of you have managed to see it outside of cinemas already. The entire film was shown on Argentinian TV weeks ago, which isn't out of the ordinary for unreleased movies apparently, and millions more watched it after the whole thing was uploaded to Twitter.
While the Twitter version of the movie was eventually pulled, Nintendo does seem to be acutely aware that everyone who wanted to see the film without it being spoiled has now seen it. That's the only reason I can think for why it would throw its post-credits surprise into one of its latest TV spots. The studio is probably already thinking about what comes next. The buzz surrounding Tears of the Kingdom must be tempting Nintendo into popping a Zelda flick on its movie slate if there isn't one on there already.