The official website of the media conglomerate NBCUniversal posted an article about the highlights from its 2025 Upfront showcases on Tuesday. (“Upfronts” are the gatherings that American television networks host to preview the upcoming year’s programming, so that marketers can buy advertising time in advance.)
The article briefly listed the movie title Super Mario World among the 2025-26 film offerings from Universal Pictures, Focus Features, DreamWorks Animation and Illumination, but the title has since been removed from the edited version of the article now posted on the website. Other titles removed from the article’s film listing are Shrek and Minions.
© 2022 Nintendo and Universal Studios
Nintendo confirmed on March 10, 2024 that a new animated film “based on the world of Super Mario Bros.” is in the works with Illumination. Returning partner Universal Pictures planned to release the film on April 3, 2026 in the United States and many other markets. The announcement then did not specify that the new film is a sequel to the 2023 film The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and Nintendo representative director and fellow Shigeru Miyamoto were producing the new film. Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and screenwriter Matthew Fogel were returning from the previous film for the new project.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie opened in the U.S. and in over 60 markets worldwide on April 5, 2023. The film earned US$31,702,735 in its opening day in the U.S., and US$204,630,730 in its first five days in the U.S. (the film opened on a Wednesday, and thus had a five-day opening frame). Deadline puts the movie’s estimated US$377,628,865 opening worldwide as the highest-earning all-time worldwide opening for an animated film, beating Frozen II. (Frozen II opened over a regular three-day frame, as opposed to The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s five-day frame.) The film is also the highest-earning video game adaptation in history.
The film ended 2023 as the #2 top-earning film worldwide and in the United States, with worldwide earnings of over US$1,361,367,353, including US$574,934,330 in the U.S.
Sources: NBCUniversal, Wayback Machine
