Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. has always been an iconic gaming brand. So when it was announced that the two Italian brothers from Brooklyn were set to hit the big screen, there was understandable buzz around the film. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is currently the highest-grossing film of the year, exceeding $1.3 billion in sales globally in June. As a result, it became the second-biggest animated film of all time with sales just behind 2019's “Frozen II.”

The film bred some interesting collaborations with brands such as Truff, Lush and Shake Shack. Footwear company Red Wing tapped into sneaker culture when it brought Mario's iconic boots to life and unveiled them at the Nintendo Store in New York.

The movie, the fifth film to surpass the $1 billion mark since the start of the pandemic, was also significant given the prolonged struggles of the movie theater business over the past few years. In April, “Super Mario” helped push domestic box office sales up by 11.5% compared with pre-pandemic levels, marking the first month that the box office surpassed its pre-pandemic average, according to the New York Times. It was produced by Nintendo and Illumination and distributed by Universal Pictures, and is set to stream on Peacock starting in August.

Nintendo itself is on a hot streak. In May, the latest game in its decades-old Zelda franchise—Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom—became the fastest-selling game in the series, selling more than 10 million copies in just three days.