The Super Mario Bros. Movie has beaten Barbie despite the latter making more money at the worldwide box office in 2023.
As per Deadline’s annual tournament for the most valuable movie of the year, The Super Mario Bros. Movie easily managed to supersede Margot Robbie’s Barbie outing, which also got snubbed through most of the awards season.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie becomes 2023’s most valuable movie
2023’s Mario movie, which will soon get a sequel, grossed $574.9 million domestically, and $1.361 billion worldwide theatrically. The studio got to keep $619 million out of that, while the rest went to theater chains and other parties.
Mario’s home entertainment earnings from digital rentals and Blu-ray and DVD sales, which amounted to $140 million, are added to the revenue. The movie also made $200 million from television and streaming deals, bringing its total revenue to $959 million.
It was produced on a budget of $100 million, while another $150 million was spent on advertisements. Residuals and other distribution expenses added $40 million to the costs. The studio also paid $20 million as interest and overheads, and $90 million went into participation expenses, which brought the total expenditure of the film to $400 million.
Deducting expenses from revenues, the studio made a net profit of $559 million from The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which was far more than Barbie.
Barbie earned $421 million in profits for Warner Bros.
An analysis of Barbie’s expenditure revealed that the film had a $145 million production budget. Further, Warner Bros. Discovery spent $175 million on ads, $64 million on residuals and distribution expenses, and interest and overhead charges of $29 million were incurred. Lastly, a participation cost of $175 million ballooned the total studio expenditure to $588 million.
Turning to revenues, Barbie earned $1.445 billion theatrically and the studio retained $659 million from that total. It also made $150 million off of home entertainment sales and $200 million from TV and streaming.
Barbie’s aggregate revenue was $1.009 billion, which left a net profit of $421 million with the studio.
