Italian-American brothers Mario and Luigi operate a struggling plumbing business in Brooklyn, to the derision of their ex-foreman Spike and the disapproval of their father. After seeing a significant water main leak on the news, Mario and Luigi go to the sewer to fix it, but are sucked into a Warp Pipe and separated.
Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom, ruled by Princess Peach, while Luigi arrives in the Dark Lands, ruled by the evil Koopa king Bowser, who seeks to marry Peach and will destroy the Mushroom Kingdom using a Super Star if she refuses. Seeing Mario as competition for Peach's love, Bowser imprisons Luigi to threaten him. Mario meets Toad, who takes him to Peach. Peach plans to ally with the primate family of Kongs to help defeat Bowser, and trains Mario before allowing him and Toad to travel along. During their journey, she tells Mario that she ended up in the Mushroom Kingdom as a baby, where the Toads took her in and eventually made her their leader. In the Jungle Kingdom, King Cranky Kong agrees to help if Mario defeats his son, Donkey Kong, in a fight. Despite initially being overpowered by Donkey Kong's strength, Mario defeats him using a Cat Suit.
Mario, Peach, Toad, and the Kong royal family use go-karts to drive back to the Mushroom Kingdom, where Bowser's army ambushes them on Rainbow Road. When a blue-shelled Koopa General destroys part of the road, Mario and Donkey Kong plummet into the ocean while the other Kongs are captured. Peach and Toad return to the Mushroom Kingdom and urge the citizens to evacuate. Bowser arrives aboard his flying castle and proposes to Peach, who reluctantly accepts after Bowser's advisor Kamek tortures Toad with magic. Mario and Donkey Kong, having been swallowed by a giant eel, learn they both want the respect of their fathers. They escape the eel by riding a rocket barrel from Donkey Kong's kart and hurry to Bowser and Peach's wedding.
At the wedding ceremony, Bowser intends to sacrifice all of his prisoners, including Luigi and the Kongs, in Peach's honor. Toad smuggles an Ice Flower into Peach's bouquet, which she uses to freeze both Bowser and the chain lowering the prisoners into the lava. Mario and Donkey Kong fight their way through Bowser's army and free the prisoners, with Mario using a Tanooki Suit to save Luigi. Bowser frees himself and launches a Bomber Bill to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom, but Mario knocks it off-course and directs it into the Warp Pipe where it detonates, creating a vacuum that sucks Bowser's castle and its occupants into Brooklyn.
Upon being vacuumed into Brooklyn, Mario attempts to grab the Star but the enraged Bowser violently beats him up in the process; he also attacks and defeats Peach, Toad, and Donkey Kong. Mario sees his business' commercial on a television and is motivated to face Bowser, who almost incinerates him. Luigi uses a manhole cover to save Mario, and they both grab the Super Star. Becoming temporarily invincible, they defeat the army, destroy Bowser's castle, and incapacitate him. Peach shrinks Bowser with a blue Mini Mushroom before Toad imprisons him in a jar. Mario and Luigi are hailed as heroes by Brooklyn's populace, including their parents and Spike, and bid their farewell to Donkey Kong before moving into a house in the Mushroom Kingdom. Sometime later, the Mario brothers begin a day of plumbing work together.
After the critical and commercial failure of the 1993 Super Mario Bros. film adaptation, the Japanese video game company Nintendo became wary of licensing its properties for film adaptations. According to Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, the idea for a new Mario film came from bringing their older games to the Virtual Console and other services.
Reception
The Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed $574.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $785.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.360 billion. It also became the first film based on a video game to gross $1 billion worldwide, the highest-grossing animated film of 2023, and the second highest-grossing film of 2023 after Barbie. It became the highest-grossing film based on a video game after just one week of release, for which it earned a Guinness World Record. In May 2023, it overtook Minions (2015) to become the highest-grossing film produced by Illumination.
Toad General: Council, your attention. Bowser has found the Super Star, and is headed toward our kingdom. Its power will make him invincible. We will be destroyed.
Yellow Council Toad: Princess, what are we gonna do?!…
Peach: Well, we have a long journey ahead of us, Mustache.
Mario: But I didn't make it.
Peach: You almost did. No one gets it right away.
Mario: How many tries did it take you?…
Peach: They're all counting on us. No pressure.
Toads: [cheering] Yeah! [now looking at Mario] Huh?
Peach: My Toads, our days of terror are almost over! With the help of the Kong Army, we will stop——— [Princess Peach…