Miyamoto says Mario movie success “far beyond our imagination”, believes poor reviews helped spread the word

Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has commented on the response The Super Mario Bros. Movie has seen, and he thinks that the poor reviews from credits was actually a good thing.

Miyamoto was speaking about the film in an interview with Nintendo Dream. He noted that “the results were far beyond our imagination.” Aside from feeling that luck was on their side, poor reviews from some critics may have actually provided a boost since “that also helps a topic grow.”

Miyamoto had this to say about the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie:

“Honestly, I’m as lucky as can be, really. There are many great things in this world, but there are few things that make you realize that, I think.

Especially with how much information flows through the internet, whether it’s about a movie or anything else, most things end up buried. Being chosen in a place where things get buried is Nintendo’s history. The point is to see how much we can do to avoid getting buried.

That’s why we thought maybe even a movie could do well, but the results were far beyond our imagination. This doesn’t really happen without some help from luck.

What’s more is that overseas critics gave it fairly poor reviews. I think that also helps a topic grow. I would have loved it if they said that it changed the definition of what a movie is. That’s how lucky I felt.”

The Super Mario Bros. Movie was at $871 million worldwide as of last weekend. The film is expected to cross the $1 billion mark soon.

Translation provided by SatsumaFS on behalf of Nintendo Everything.