Nintendo wins big expanding franchise IP beyond games

It may seem like a no-brainer to bring one of the most recognizable household names and entertainment franchises to the big screen. But Nintendo, Illumination and Universal Pictures’ “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was a gamble considering the storied video game franchise’s previous theatrical attempt, 1993’s “Super Mario Bros.,” was a box office disaster. The ’93 film earned just short of $40 million worldwide against a reported budget of $48 million. So, Mario and crew needed a mega mushroom power-up for its theatrical re-do earlier this year. See our 2023 Marketers of the Year here Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, check us out on Spotify and hear us on Stitcher. This is our RSS feed. Tell a friend! They got one with “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” one of the year’s biggest hits. The smash film, which placed an A-list cast in a nostalgic encapsulation of the game franchise, is a case study in how Nintendo intends to implement cross-media marketing for other franchises, such as a recently announced live-action film based on “The Legend of Zelda” game series, and grow its business through experiences that consumers can access across gaming, entertainment and theme parks. Nintendo’s breakthrough year elevated it beyond just the gaming category, and into a full-fledged entertainment universe of which Mario is just an example, said Dipanjan Chatterjee, VP, principal analyst at Forrester. “The success in effecting this evolution has come as a result of the company’s distinctive brand assets. Nintendo has taken the brand equity resident in its assets and has been able to bring it to life through several platforms creating multi-point relevance,” he said. “They’ve covered a vast swath of audience who get to experience Nintendo’s offerings in as many formats and as often as they choose to. In effect, Nintendo has dialed up the experiential relevance of its brand through this multi-platform approach.” Also: “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” on Ad Age Hottest Brands list “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” earned nearly $575 million at the domestic box office and more than $1.36 billion worldwide against a reported production budget of $100 million. And the movie didn’t simply break theatrical records—surpassing “Frozen” to become the second-highest grossing animated film of all time (“Frozen 2” is No. 1)—it also crushed on NBCUniversal’s streamer Peacock. The film spent seven weeks on Nielsen’s list of top 10 streaming movies after its streaming release on Aug. 3 and may experience another boost this month following Netflix’s Dec. 3 release. The animated film, which featured a laundry list of starry voices including Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Charlie Day, Seth Rogan and Fred Armisen, was created collaboratively with Nintendo so that this time around it stuck to the essence of its video game counterpart. In addition, “Super Mario” and “The Legend of Zelda” franchise creator Shigeru Miyamoto served as producer and consultant. Even an original song from the film, “Peaches,” had its own viral moment. The song became a frequent back-up track on TikTok, earning the hashtag “#peachessong” more than 207 million views. A video by Lyrical Lemonade in which the actor Black performs the tune has 56 million views on YouTube. (The film’s original scene featuring “Peaches” has 94 million views on Illumination’s YouTube channel.) Extending the franchise The Mario universe has become a cross-platform marketing ecosystem across games, movies and theme parks. Universal Studios Hollywood opened its own Super Nintendo World this year, three years after Universal Studios Japan opened Super Nintendo World, featuring rides, games and characters based on the Mario IP. More international additions have been slated for the future. “Effective franchise marketers use their full ecosystem to create a whole-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-parts marketing dynamic, riffing between platforms and leveraging engagement and visibility opportunities everywhere possible,” said Chris Ross, VP analyst in the Gartner for Marketing Leaders Practice. “Nintendo held ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ promotion events at their theme parks, integrated theme park promotion into movie marketing, and connected their gaming platforms and fan communities to all their movie-related marketing.” Nintendo also got a boost by teaming up with a diverse array of partners, such as Truff, Lush and Shake Shack, among others. The marketing campaign across the game studio’s internal platforms and partners began building buzz for the film that could “also be used to gather early feedback to fine-tune messaging and positioning,” said Ross. Japan-based Nintendo stated in its most recent business report—which covers earnings between April 1 and Sept. 30—that “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” also raised the performance of its Mario-related games, such as 2017’s “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe,” which sold 3.22 million units over the time period. To maintain the smashing success, the company has delivered numerous new Mario games to fans and announced a handful coming soon. “Super Mario Bros. Wonder” was released Oct. 20 and sold 4.3 million copies in its first two weeks, per Nintendo, and a remake of “Super Mario RPG” hit shelves Nov. 17. Next year, Nintendo will release “Mario vs. Donkey Kong,” “Luigi’s Mansion 2” and “Princess Peach: Showtime!” Time to jump into the wonder that awaits! #SuperMarioBrosWonder is available now, only on Nintendo Switch. pic.twitter.com/AuZkYcwErn— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) October 20, 2023 Zelda for the big screen In addition to the Mario mania, Nintendo had a major year for another long-running franchise. Nintendo released “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” on May 12. “Tears of the Kingdom” sold 10 million copies in its first three days, and had sold 19.5 million as of September, according to Nintendo. The game is a sequel to 2017’s “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” the franchise’s top-selling title with 31.15 million copies sold as of September. In November, Nintendo announced “The Legend of Zelda” would be getting the Mario treatment, with a big-screen adaptation. This time a live-action film, Nintendo will split the production with Sony Pictures, which will also distribute the film globally. It will be directed by Wes Ball (who also directed “The Maze Runner” trilogy and 2024’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”). Miyamoto will produce this film as well. The Legend of #Zelda: #TearsOfTheKingdom reaches new heights with nominations at this year’s #TheGameAwards! If you’ve yet to begin Link’s adventure, Hyrule awaits!https://t.co/QpfZw3whFg pic.twitter.com/ENZMmr7XRF— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) December 1, 2023 “Nintendo is creating new opportunities to have people from around the world to access the world of entertainment which Nintendo has built, through different means apart from its dedicated game consoles,” the company said in a statement when announcing “The Legend of Zelda” film. “By getting deeply involved in movie production with the aim to put smiles on everyone’s faces through entertainment, Nintendo will continue its efforts to produce unique entertainment and deliver it to as many people as possible.” See our 2023 Marketers of the Year here

Nintendo wins big expanding franchise IP beyond games

Featured Stories