'Super Mario' is year's first film to pass $1 billion globally

LOS ANGELES - "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" easily held its first-place position on North American movie screens this weekend while its accumulated global total pushed past the $1 billion mark, analysts said Sunday.

The video game-based film earned an estimated $40 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period in the United States and Canada for a domestic total so far of $490 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported.

With overseas earnings now at $532 million, its accumulated global total has hit $1.02 billion.

That makes "Super Mario" -- a joint project of Universal, Nintendo and Illumination studios -- the year's first film to pass the billion-dollar mark and only the 10th animation ever to do so, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Second place, for the second straight weekend, went to bloody horror film "Evil Dead Rise" from Warner Bros., at $12.2 million. Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland play sisters battling a demonic crew known as the Deadites.

In third was "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret," a new comedy-drama from Gracie Films and Lionsgate Films, at $6.8 million. Analyst David A. Gross called that only "a fair opening" for a coming-of-age film, while adding that "reviews and audience scores are sensational."

Based on the beloved Judy Blume novel of the same name, it stars Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret Simon, a sixth-grader navigating the challenges of that awkward age. Rachel McAdams and Kathy Bates also star.

Still strong in its sixth weekend out, Lionsgate's neo-noir "John Wick: Chapter 4" placed fourth at $5 million. Keanu Reeves plays the titular hitman.

And showing the enduring lure of the "Star Wars" franchise, Disney's re-release of "Return of the Jedi" placed fifth, taking in $4.8 million.

The film starring icons Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher marks its 40th anniversary in late May. It sold more than 80 million tickets in its initial run.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

"Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" ($4.1 million)

"Air" ($4 million)

"Ponniyin Selvan: II" ($3.7 million)

"The Covenant" ($3.6 million)

"Sisu" ($3.3 million)

Agence France-Presse

‘Super Mario,’ ‘Pokemon’ may soon be on smartphones

TOKYO, Japan — After years of scoffing at the threat from smartphones, Nintendo Co. is doing an about face and entering an alliance with Japanese mobile game company DeNA Co. to develop games for mobile devices.

The announcement Tuesday means that Nintendo’s trademark game characters such as Super Mario and Pokemon could finally feature on smartphones and tablets. Such characters have been fiercely protected by Nintendo, appearing only on Nintendo platforms such as the Wii home console and 3DS mobile machines.

Both sides said they will build a global membership service for various devices including personal computers, smartphones and Nintendo machines. The service is set to launch in the fall of 2015.

They said the mobile games won’t be mere adaptations of the games already out for the Nintendo machines but developed especially for the smartphone experience.

The alliance will be combining Nintendo’s intellectual property and game development skills with DeNA’s expertise in mobile games, the announcement said.

Under the alliance, Kyoto-based Nintendo will acquire about 15 million DeNA shares or a 10 percent stake. In return, DeNA will acquire about 1.759 million Nintendo shares, or 1.24 percent of the company. Both acquisitions are worth 22 billion yen ($182 million). The payment is due April 2, they said.

Nintendo has run into trouble in the past few years as people increasingly turned to mobile phones to play games and spend time on social networks. The company is expecting to turn a profit for the fiscal year ending later this month, a turnaround from red ink the previous year.

Tokyo-based DeNA, founded in 1999, has a reputation as an innovator and is one of the most successful of a new generation of Japanese technology companies. It develops and operates a broad range of mobile and online services including games and e-commerce.

source: technology.inquirer.net