Nintendo has finally made big moves into movies in recent years, with this year's The Super Mario Galaxy Movie crossing $1bn at the global box office. The company's latest financial results explain why, and the reason is not just 'loads of money.'
Buried in the graph-packed document is a single page on Nintendo's movie business, which goes some way to explaining why the Japanese powerhouse has finally embraced movies after decades of shunning Hollywood: "We believe that our initiatives in movies and videos can transcend the boundaries of the dedicated video game platform business," the document says. "And provide opportunities for people all over the world to become aware of Nintendo characters."
In plain English, then, Nintendo is saying it can reach a wider audience with movies than it can with games, especially in parts of the world where consoles are not widely available. "In particular, it serves as an opportunity for consumers in regions where dedicated video game platforms are not yet widely adopted to experience Nintendo content for the first time," Nintendo adds.
As the report notes, 2023's The Super Mario Bros. Movie is currently the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time, with $1.36 billion. This year's The Super Mario Galaxy Movie made significantly less, earning just over $1 billion worldwide by the end of its theatrical run. That was still enough to briefly make it the highest-grossing movie of the year, until Spider-Man: Brand New Day crossed that threshold in less than a week.
Next up for Nintendo on the big screen is Wes Ball's live-action The Legend of Zelda movie. "Going forward, we will take a variety of approaches to continually create contact points with Nintendo characters all over the world," Nintendo's financial report notes, reaffirming that we will likely see a mix of animated and live-action movies from Nintendo going forward. Little is currently known about the live-action Legend of Zelda, though Link actor Benjamin Evan Ainsworth recently told us that he was too young to play Breath of the Wild when it released.
As for Nintendo's video game business, that's not going too badly either: the report confirms that the Switch 2 is still Nintendo's fastest-selling hardware ever, and sales have already surpassed the GameCube's lifetime totals.
The Legend of Zelda movie releases on April 30, 2027. For more, check out our list of every major upcoming video game movie.
