A newly released animated movie starring Christian actor Chris Pratt dominated at the box office over Easter Weekend, setting a new all-time record.
On Saturday, reports began emerging that Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was on track to bring in $368 million globally in its first five days at the box office.
This would make it the biggest animated opening of all time, beating out Disney’s “Frozen 2” which previously held the record at $358 million.
Well, it turns out that the film has done even better than expected.
According to Axios, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” raked in $377 million between Wednesday and Sunday, officially making it the biggest animated opening of all time, and making it the biggest film opening of the year so far, beating out Disney’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”
This should not come as a huge surprise. The film is based on perhaps the most beloved video game franchise of all time, with characters that audiences of all ages are familiar with and love.
But beyond that, many people have pointed out that the reason that the film was such a success is that it was a movie that sought to entertain audiences of all ages, rather than a typical film that tried to indoctrinate children into leftist ideology.
Most notably, John Leguizamo, who starred in the original, live-action “Super Mario Bros.”-movie (that one is largely panned as one of the worst movies of all time), called for boycotting the 2023 film for a “lack of diversity,” per Fox News.
Those cries for boycotting, evidently, fell on deaf ears, as conservative pundit Charlie Kirk pointed out on Twitter.
Mario Bros just grossed $377 million—a new record for animated features—despite John Lequizamo boycotting the film because it “messed up the inclusion” casting two white men, Chris Pratt and Charlie Day, as the Italian American leads. Nintendo refused to let Mario Bros go woke!
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 10, 2023
One Twitter user wrote, “It was a fun and lighthearted KIDS movie. No woke agenda or exploration of the characters sexual identity.” She also sent a message to ultra-woke Disney, saying, “@Disney should take notes.”
This weekend I took my kids to see Mario Bros. It was a fun and lighthearted KIDS movie. No woke agenda or exploration of the characters sexual identity.
Mario just saved the princess from the bad guy, like he’s been doing since the 80’s. @Disney should take notes. pic.twitter.com/DuSYWlZYRL
— Megan Brock (@MegEBrock) April 9, 2023
Noted conservative firebrand Jack Posobiec noted that Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of the Mario franchise, was heavily involved in the production of the film and ensured that it remained true to the characters he had created, in addition to making sure that woke garbage was left out.
The original creator of Mario, Miyamoto, was heavily involved with the production of the animated film and insisted that it have as little plot as possible and just feel like one of the games
It has no woke narratives and all the characters are exactly like the original games pic.twitter.com/W3yX0NKrwT
— Jack Poso
(@JackPosobiec) April 10, 2023
In addition, it helps that the Mario character is voiced by Chris Pratt, a Christian actor who is not afraid to speak openly about the importance of faith in his life. In response to criticism of Pratt, one Twitter user wrote after seeing the results of the film “You owe Chris Pratt an apology.”
You all owe Chris Pratt an apology. https://t.co/G888ljVxIE
— Myth (@Myth_) April 9, 2023
The message to woke film companies like Disney is clear: parents are tired of their children being exposed to leftist talking points in entertainment, and audiences in general are tired of having woke talking points rammed down their throats.
Even short of that message, perhaps studios should take another look at the widening gap between critic scores and user scores on Rotten Tomatoes (56 percent score from critics, 96 percent score from users) and ask themselves who, exactly, they are making movies for.
Moviegoers just want to have fun and enjoy a spectacle, not get entrenched in whether or not Donkey Kong has had enough character development or if the Mushroom Kingdom would be better off as a socialist “utopia.” It’s, quite literally, one of the biggest factors in the ongoing success of the turn-off-your-brain action movie franchise “Fast & Furious.”
Disney, especially, is guilty of this, with several releases in the past year that have relentlessly tried to push the woke ideology on children.
Illumination, by contrast, is setting out to create fun and entertaining family-friendly movies that audiences of all ages can enjoy, which is what Hollywood used to do before it went woke.
Maybe once these woke companies like Disney start to really suffer financially, they will begin to critically evaluate what they are doing and return to what made them the success they were in the first place.
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