Mark April 3, 2026 in your calendars now.
The most famous plumber, Mario, will make his big return to the cinema on this date for new adventures, Nintendo announced this Sunday.
An announcement made less than a year after the success of the first animated film, which ranked second at the global box office last year behind Barbie, and first in France.
This new feature film featuring the flagship characters of the Japanese video game giant will be released on April 3, 2026, notably in the United States, and everywhere else during the same month, according to a video posted by Nintendo.
The first animated film, “Super Mario Bros. Movie,” released last April, grossed more than $1.36 billion in theaters worldwide, making it the second highest-grossing animated film. profitable story behind “Frozen 2”.
Also read: Mario Bros, from arcade games to cinema, Nintendo's inexhaustible tip
“We will soon start the animation phase,” explains Christopher Meledandri, founder of the American animation studio Illumination, which also co-produced the first opus.
He also specified that the new film would be like the previous one directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic.
“We will reveal more as soon as we feel ready,” added Shigeru Miyamoto, star creator of Nintendo and progenitor of Mario in this video.
A Zelda film in preparation
The latter was broadcast on the occasion of “Mario Day”, a date created by Nintendo by playing on the similar spellings of the English abbreviation for March 10, “MAR 10”, and the name of its hero.
Happy #MAR10Day!
To mark the occasion, please take a look at this video for the latest news about Mario.
pic.twitter.com/MC33jhj3Ju
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 10, 2024
Nintendo has long been wary of Hollywood adaptations of its franchises, particularly after the flop of the film "Super Mario Bros."
» (1993), in which Mario finds himself immersed in an apocalyptic dimension populated by dinosaurs.
At the time, the company had simply sold the name of its hero to Hollywood, without participating in the production.
But the success of its recent cartoon dedicated to the plumber, for which the Japanese giant was involved in the development, validated an overhaul of its approach.
The Japanese announced last November that he was also working on a live-action film based on the world of Zelda, another of its major franchises, including the latest video game opus released last year, “ Tears of the Kingdom,” has sold more than 20 million copies.
This feature film must be directed by Wes Ball, author of the “Maze Runner” trilogy, and co-produced by Avi Arad, who supervised several major films in the “Spider-Man” series, and also involve Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo had specified. .