Aaron Horvath Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” launched to the top of box office charts, collecting a mighty $31.7 million on opening day. Ben Affleck’s sports drama “Air,” which also debuted on Wednesday, nabbed $3.2 million from 3,507 venues. After a bigger-than-expected opening day, estimates for Universal and Illumination’s big screen adaptation of the popular “Mario” video game have been revised up to $92 million over the traditional weekend and $141 million in its first five days of release. Those ticket sales continue a strong period at the box office following March releases, “Scream VI,” “Creed III,” “John Wick: Chapter 4” and “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.”

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle Editor Seth Rogen hopes Hollywood will redeem itself with Universal Pictures’ new animated “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Rogen, who voices Donkey Kong in the adaptation of the popular video game series, tells Variety at the film’s premiere, “When I was 11, I saw the original ‘Mario Bros.’ movie and I was so excited. But it’s one of the worst films ever made. I was so disappointed. I think it made me realize that movies, like, could be bad. That never occurred to me until that moment. “It really bummed me out,” he continues. “It’s nice to vindicate that moment. It’s nice to know that 11-year-olds out there that they won’t be disappointed in the same way that I was.”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach are poised to clobber the box office competition as “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” readies to power past the $100 million mark in its opening weekend. Universal and Illumination’s big screen adaptation of the popular video game, which opens in 4,000 North American theaters on Wednesday, looks to collect a towering $125 million or more in its first five days of release. It’ll be the second 2023 release, following Disney’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($106 million) to open above $100 million. “Mario” will easily lead domestic box office charts over last weekend’s champ, “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” as well as fellow newcomer “Air,” a sports drama directed by Ben Affleck.

Widely considered to be one of the greatest videogame franchises ever, Super Mario Bros. is an iconic, generation-spanning success that has taken on many iterations to always keep up with the times. One area in which it failed miserably was the 1993 live-action film version that starred Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario and Luigi, Brooklyn-based plumbers who go on a fantastical adventure. It was a critical and commercial flop, though it managed to find some bit of a cult following in the ensuing decades.

It’s a-him! Chris Pratt hasn’t shied away from discussing doubts about his casting as the titular character in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Aaron Horvath is addressing fan concerns.

EXCLUSIVE: Illumination/Universal/Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros Movie just landed on tracking this morning ahead of its Easter weekend release, and the animated film is shaping up to make at least $85M-$90M+ over its Wednesday through Sunday launch and that’s on the conservative side.

Grab your kart and go!

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Chris Pratt’s voice role as Mario in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has been a point of debate ever since he was cast. Pratt is not Italian, after all, and many fans were left baffled when the movie’s first trailer dropped last October and revealed Pratt’s Brooklyn-heavy Mario voice. It’s not a concern for the film’s directors, Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath. The filmmakers told Total Film magazine that casting Pratt made sense given the Mario at the center of their story. “It’s a bit of an origin tale. It’s the story of Mario becoming Super Mario,” Horvath said about the film, adding that finding the perfect Mario voice meant finding an actor who could believably portray a plumber from Brooklyn who is “a blue-collar guy from a family of Italian immigrants.”

trailer, Jack Black plays the villain Bowser, who directs his army of Koopa Troopas to burn down a kingdom belonging to penguins in search of a star that will grant him invincibility.The movie is directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (“Teen Titans Go!”, “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies”) from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel (“The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part”, “Minions: The Rise of Gru”).

The highly anticipated Illumination Entertainment/Universal movie The Super Mario Bros. Movie will be opening on Wednesday, April 5 around the world before Easter weekend instead of Good Friday, April 7.

Jordan Moreau Mario is powering up his release date. Universal and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” will now hit theaters around the world two days earlier than expected, the company announced Tuesday. The movie’s new release date is Wednesday, April 5, instead of its original Friday, April 7. In addition to going wide domestically, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” will release in more than 60 markets around the world, including China, Australia, France Germany, Italy, Brazil Mexico and the U.K. and Ireland. There are around 10 markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe opening on a variety of dates in April and May, Universal also announced. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” will release in Japan on April 28, timed to the Golden Week Holidays.

Universal/Illumination/Nintendo’s The Super Mario Bros Movie has become the latest Hollywood title to secure a release date in China. The big-screen spin on the iconic videogame franchise will hit Chinese cinemas on April 5, in time for Ching Ming Festival and in step with some other international markets as well as two days before the domestic release on April 7. 

Universal and Illumination’s Nintendo movie Super Mario Bros about the famed videogame plumbers, kart drivers and squashers of turtles is zipping from its planned December 21 release date to April 7, which is Easter weekend 2023.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorAccording to Chris Pratt, his voice performance as Mario in the upcoming feature adaptation of the Super Mario Bros. video game will be “unlike anything you’ve heard.”Variety got the chance to catch up with Pratt at the Wednesday night premiere of his new Amazon Prime Video series “The Terminal List” (more on that later!) to talk about finding his voice for the film, which co-stars Charlie Day as Luigi.There’s been much internet discussion over Pratt’s casting in the animated film as the Italian plumber despite his non-Italian background, with critics expressing concern that his accent could potentially be offensive.

Universal and Illumination’s Nintendo movie Super Mario Bros about the famed videogame plumbers, kart drivers and squashers of turtles is zipping from its Dec. 21 release date this year to April 7, 2023, which is Easter weekend.

The cast for the new Super Mario Bros. movie is proving to be stacked with premier Hollywood talent right out of the gate.