A place for those who "Trust the Fungus"

Hey folks.

Since our recent post on March 21 about Super Mario Bros. showing up in the Best Buy ad, I've been thinking:

Exactly how popular IS the Super Mario Bros. movie?

Well, that's what I want to find out. This site has been saying it's a cult classic for years, and it's time to show everyone that it's true.

First off, let me show some of the "hard data" that may get you thinking:



^The march 12-14 Best Buy ad for most of North America, as mentioned above.



^One of my local Wal-Mart stores. Notice that SMB is advertised on the bin. A few weeks later, someone stole that advertisement panel. And no, it wasn't me.

SO WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

So, it's pretty hard (I think) to track how well older DVD titles like this sell--but it's obviously selling well or it wouldn't show up in places like Best Buy ads and stuff, right?

If you want to help:

See if there's stuff like this where you live.

Ask/interview your local stores to see if SMB is a big seller, or if they've noticed people buying it.

Ask/interview people to see if they've heard of the film. Try to target the "average joe" kind of moviegoer. Have they heard of the film?

Just a few thoughts. Feel free to post your results in this thread or PM/e-mail them to me (ryan.hoss@mailcity.com). And of course, if you think of a different angle than what I've outlined here, feel free to post your thoughts or do something different. This is an experiment--let's see what we can discover here.

This is a cool idea! I live in Canada, so, I can get some voice about the SMB movie from some Video stores that the US do not have, even though not many stores have it here (No video rental stores carry SMB here, at least where I am at, so I can't get info from that)

^That'd be great! Anything to help would be amazing. I'm hoping that we'll get some cool results if we can get enough people to do something.

That's a great idea! I'll keep my eyes open and I'll try to think of some things as well.

This article was printed in 2005 and there's no numbers backing it up, but it may still be relevant: Top ten cringe-worthy films.

I got a word from a movie n' game store over here called 'HMV', here's what one of the guys said: "The live action Mario movie? It sells well. I usually mention and recommend it when people buy one of the Mario cartoon DVDs."

I don't know if this counts, but I remember when I was little a store near my house still had the ERTL figures for sale and I would buy them every now and then. Anyway, the guy said: "Kids were storming in here buying the Mario & Luigi figures, we were sold out so often. I don't understand why the movie got such bad reviews, I thought it was a pretty cool movie, very unique from every other film out nowadays."

I also remember around the early 2000s' (Possibly 2003, when the DVD was released), a picture of Bob Hoskins & John Leguizamo from Super Mario Bros. appeared on the front cover on the newspaper of either 'The Province' or 'The Vancouver Sun'. It talked about the movie in a short little paragraph, alas, I don't have the article anymore since that was so long ago, but maybe with a little research, it can be found.

I don't know if I can get anything else here, one of the only other stores that distribute the film just went bankrupt.

I asked in Game Planet, and they told me: yes, it's purchased, mostly by Wii fans

I don't know if this helps, or if it's too late, but here is one I took at a Target on my trip to NC.

Yep, thought of you guys!

^Ugh. Look at what movies/section Target decided to put the movie in. That's the absolutely worst place it should go. It should really be in comedy/adventure next to Ghostbusters.

At least they're even selling the movie, the only places I can find it for sale at around here is at FYE-- a branch that's going out of business.