Nintendo’s Representative Director and legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto was quoted by the Japanese website Nikkei saying that there’s no doubt the gaming company will continue to make movies based on its intellectual properties.
Miyamoto-san, known as the creator of classic Nintendo franchises like Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pikmin, Donkey Kong, and Star Fox, was a producer on the recently released The Super Mario Bros. Movie by Illumination and Universal Pictures. While the film wasn’t much of a critical success, it quickly became the biggest gaming adaptation ever for a live action theatrical release, grossing over half a billion dollars globally in its debut week. So far, it’s even trending ahead of James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water when it comes to the US box office performance, which speaks for itself given that we’re talking about the third highest-grossing film of all time.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie wasn’t the first one based on Nintendo IPs to be released, of course. Everyone remembers the highly controversial Super Mario Bros. live action adaptation released in 1993; a few years ago, though, Nintendo already found success with Pokémon Detective Pikachu, which starred Ryan Reynolds as the protagonist. Pokémon Detective Pikachu is the third highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time, second only to The Super Mario Bros. Movie and to 2016’s Warcraft film. A sequel is already on the way, with Jonathan Krisel directing and Chris Galletta writing the screenplay.
That might be all Miyamoto was referring to. Then again, given this success streak and the rapidly expanding interest in gaming IPs from Hollywood (Borderlands, Ghost of Tsushima, Rainbow Six, Dead by Daylight, Days Gone, Minecraft, Street Fighter, Death Stranding, and Silent Hill are only some of the movies on the way), there’s a strong chance other Nintendo IPs may be adapted in the future. Fans are certainly eager to see a live-action adaptation of The Legend of Zelda; in the meantime, they’ll have to settle for Tears of the Kingdom, the long-anticipated sequel to Breath of the Wild. Tears of the Kingdom will be released on May 12th, exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. It’ll be the console’s first game priced at $70 (though Nintendo quickly clarified it won’t necessarily be the new baseline for other first-party releases).
