The $1,000,000,000 Field Set aside of job Video Game Movie System

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is an astronomicalsuccess by every metric that matters and people across fandoms are taking notice. & rightfully so, it’s a great movie in myopinion. A trend I’ve seen, though, is people frompundit to fan – be it IN the media or even just ON social media alike, suggesting thatthis success is owed to Mario being some sort of iconic anomaly – I think it’s simultaneouslymore complex yet much more simple than that. Let’s talk about it. 1st of all, make no mistake – Mario is a MickeyMouse level entertainment icon. That character and i.p at large is and hasbeen a household name for millions upon millions.

Of people across the world for nearly halfa century. & that relevance and adoration is only goingup as time goes on. It’s also important to note that unlikeMickey Mouse, this relevance has almost ENTIRELY been accrued from a single medium. Even Pokemon owes its position in pop cultureto being a transmedia property essentially from the moment it left Japan. While the Super Mario brand has dipped itstoes in a few projects in different verticals. Never until now did it do so at the levelof care and creator-led involvement that Pokemon has all along.

Obviously the Mario Bros Super Show existed,you’d be hard pressed to argue that was on the same level or even in the same universeas the Pokemon anime, though. The same can be said about the 1993 live actionSuper Mario Bros. movie when compared to Pokemon the Movie Mewtwo Strikes Back. & that’s because these attempts relied ENTIRELYon the SAME anecdote people are attributing the success of the 2023 animated Mario movieof the same name to. “It’s Mario, of course it will sell.” There’s a few problems with this. Some of which speak to the undervalued depthof why Mario matters and HAS mattered to people.

& others are kind of the antithesis of that. Let’s start with talking Mario UP – as ifthe internet hasn’t been doing that enough as it is these past few weeks. Mario is known by many as the KING of videogames & that’s because these games, the series, & every sub series it spawned caterto fans of quite literally all ages like no other. & this is 1 angle that is being woefully misrepresentedin the discourse. Mario isn’t a video game icon, he is anicon, full stop. He just so happens to come from the worldof video games.

& this distinction may make people feel 1way or another be it “how dare you?” “well duh” or even “what’s the difference?” & I think that divide is why this bears mentioningor for some – repeating. I also bring this up to say – & segue intothe next point: video game movies don’t NEED to be led by an icon on the level ofMario to be successful & I’d even go as far as to say studios could stand to fallseveral rungs down the ladder to find excellent candidates to turn into successful film adaptations- hell I’d argue several of them can even be billion dollar box office darlings as well. To do this, let’s look at the top 50 grossingfilms of all time.

& before anyone pedantically brings up inflation,this video is intending to discuss what is currently working in the film industry. Had it been released this year, Gone withthe Wind wouldn’t have sold in 2023 like it did in 1939. I think we all have the deductive reasoningskills necessary to understand that. Or SHOULD. Anyway, Off rip, you’ll notice, there’s some themesgoing on here – some more obvious than others. Less obvious than that, I’m sure.

I’D say – they all actually boil down tothe same thing. Let’s break THAT down a bit. Ok so the most overwhelmingly covered to death& back trend you’ll see here is superhero movies. & so as not to bury the lead too far intothe video – this is the catalyst for why I believe so strongly that video game moviescan continue to climb. & furthermore why I feel they don’t haveto start and end at Mario because: 1. They had VERY similar trajectories in theirpath to getting the whole film adaptation situation figured out.

There were countless examples of half assedattempts at cashing in on these franchise’s fandoms. Eventually 1 got it kinda right then anotherone then later another & so on. 2. The video game industry actually grosses aLOT more money than the film industry as it stands. It’s not hard or unreasonable to concludethat if people will spend $60 or more on a video game property in video game form, atLEAST those people would spend 1/4 of that (or often less) on that property in othermediums.

This was true for comics, & they for the mostpart didn’t have the breadth of already casually invested fans that the video gameindustry does. These are the people that MAKE billion dollarmovies. Obviously people like us that care to watchor even make videos like this one for instance (subscribe if you’re enjoying it by theway) help get the word out and may even see it multiple times with multiple groups ofpeople as I’m sure was and remains true for comic book movies. Ultim ately though, we are outnumbered by thepeople that play games and you may never even know because it’s a very small piece tothe puzzle that is how they spend their free.

Time. 3. While I will push back on the common claimthat nerd culture is now pop culture – since I don’t believe it will ever be the defaultto delve into ANYTHING in the same way that nerds do – as I just touched on. I do however firmly believe that many thingsthat originated FROM and are embraced WITHIN nerd culture definitely are. It’s with that in mind that I think thisbecomes pertinent once you take more than a passing glance at the list below the top10, EVERY film – with the exception of 4….

Sort of…. that we’ll get to – on thislist was a previously established intellectual property before it made its way to theatersand immediately after: box office dominance. & there’s no real rhyme or reason on howthey became that. Some were books, some were offshoots of lessfinancially successful films, some were…. theme park rides? You see where I’m going with this? There’s NOTHING about video games that saystheir franchises are any different in this regard. As for those exceptions, all of them benefitfrom what is effectively the same thing as.

Being an established i.p. Coming from an established creator. James Cameron accounts for 2 of the exceptionsbeing: Titanic which like…. I guess? It’s based on a real world event so youcan argue it was established in that regard but meh… semantics. & the other, an extension of the former inthe sense that Cameron has accrued fame and acclaim for creating Titanic, Avatar. The sequel is also on the list but like…it’s a sequel so that falls firmly into.

Established i.p territory. The 3rd & 4th exceptions on the list I thinkwe can all agree on. Zootopia, & Frozen….. It’s Disney….. Box office dominance is kinda their thing…. This brings me back to my original point anda point that I’ve tried to hammer home for years now – Nintendo is literally the onlycorporation on planet earth with the intellectual property to compete with Disney in terms ofrecognizability, brand loyalty, and creative scrutiny when it comes to that brand.

It’s not just Mario. Pokemon could do it even BIGGER than DetectivePikachu provided they laser in to what the masses associate with that brand. The Legend of Zelda can do it too. You may say people don’t know Zelda – whoyes I know is the boy – but they didn’t know Elsa either. Also, I maintain that it’s ultimately unimportantbut I call cap, 30 million people purchased The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. People know what Zelda is in the year of ourlord 2023.

Animal Crossing could do it. It’s hard to argue the general public doesn’tknow that franchise, even if they couldn’t name Bob the Cat, Isabelle, or even Tom Nookthey would definitely be able to identify them with the brand. I’d go so far as to say any long standingSmash Bros. character could helm a movie in the same way Iron Man, who at the time ofthe release of his 2008 film was at BEST a D tier hero is now the lead of 30% of thetop 10 grossing films of all time. All of that to say while YES the i.p beingwell known & well liked is important to success in entertainment the MOST important thingin entertainment is a compelling product.

After all, while Iron Man started all of thesuccess of the MCU only ONE of the actual Iron Man movies crack that top 50 list & there’seven 2 non-Avengers movies ABOVE it on the list. One of those 2 aforementioned films is Spider-Manwhich is essentially the Mario of superheroes so there’s that… But the other one is Black Panther, anotherhero that prior to its foray into film was virtually unknown by the general public. This tells me that while a franchise on thelevel of Mario can & will certainly hold its own, there can & will be contenders for thatsame or even greater success.

With that said, not to pull the wool overyour eyes or anything like that – I don’t even buy the idea that you NEED to be a Disneyor Nintendo in terms of relevance to see similar success. But properties and/or brands do need to bea Disney or Nintendo in the sense that they understand what makes their i.p. compelling and are making films like it. The original Super Mario movie didn’t workbecause the movie studio – that Nintendo shrugged and gave the rights to make the film – believedthe Mario name alone would be enough to sell the film – & didn’t do much more than justthat with the opportunity, slap the name on.

A largely disconnected product & ran off withwhatever profits they could. The 2023 Mario Bros. Movie on the other handworks because it understands that it needs to maintain the reason why that name has anyweight at all. There’s a reason why we all have playedthese games for this long. There’s a reason why they have found mainstreamsuccess in their own right and that reason has been, can be, and will continue to betranslated to not only just the medium of film, but whatever medium creative peoplethat care to make it so sees fit. Everyone at every part of the chain needsto recognize what the marketing team behind the original Pokemania boom intimately understood.

We’re all people. Relatability is innate and irresistible & thesepeople clearly knew that and used it to their advantage. They didn’t talk about Pokemon like it wassome crazy thing that only nerds will like. They talked about it like it was the coolestthing that kids just like me or you at the time were already in love with. That’s where gaming at large is now. The studios that understand that are the onesthat will emulate, elevate, and exponentiate that success..

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