The Super Mario movie is one of the biggest kids movies ever. Universal and Illimunation’s colorful and unassuming adaptation of the classic videogames was a hit with families (more on that in our Super Mario movie review) and has jumped to over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. Not bad for a new movie most people didn’t take note of.
Universal recently claimed that if it grosses $600 million domestically, it will overtake Disney‘s The Incredibles 2 to become the second most successful animated movie of all time. But some people had a retort to this potential success.
A fun experiment, when you adjust ticket sales for inflation, Super Mario is not, in fact, bouncing on the heads of as many movies as we initially thought. So, what films beat it out?
As you can see in this chart courtesy of IndieWire, 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the classic 2D-animated fairy tale, is actually the winner. Taking nothing away from Mario and Luigi, it’s amazing to see how these older movies truly captivated the public, and how that success would translate in today’s terms.
There is only one film — Shrek 2 — that doesn’t belong to Disney on the list, demonstrating that the studio has always had a firm grasp on moviegoers, no matter the era.
For more on the best animated movies, check out our list of the best movies of all time, the best anime movies.