The Super Mario Galaxy movie just hit Chinese streaming — and it's already made $1 billion

The first Super Mario movie made $1.3 billion worldwide in 2023, which is the kind of number that guarantees a sequel before the credits even finish rolling. That sequel, Super Mario Galaxy, arrived in theaters earlier this year — and it’s already matched its predecessor’s financial gravity with over $1 billion in global ticket sales.

As of Friday, Chinese viewers can finally watch it without leaving the house. The film is now streaming on Bilibili, Tencent Video, Youku, iQiyi, and also available for purchase through Xiaomi TV and BesTV.

The movie is directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, with a screenplay by Matthew Fogel. The entire core voice cast returns — Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, and Jack Black as Bowser. The big addition is Brie Larson, who joins as Rosalina, the guardian of the cosmos. Ben Safdie voices Bowser Jr.

Behind the scenes, Shigeru Miyamoto — the creator of Mario himself and Nintendo’s legendary producer — served as producer and contributed to the writing.

The plot picks up where the first film ended. Bowser Jr., trying to rescue his shrunken father, attacks the Mushroom Kingdom and drags Princess Peach’s castle into the center of the universe. Mario and Luigi team up with Rosalina to travel across the galaxy collecting Power Stars to save everything.

Visually, the film goes all-in on the source material. The original Super Mario Galaxy game (released on the Wii in 2007) was known for its creative gravity-flipping mechanics and surreal cosmic environments. The movie translates that into big-screen imagery — everything from inverted pyramid deserts to neon arcade worlds and gravity-reversal planets where a wrong step sends you tumbling into open space. A 70-person symphony orchestra recorded the score, pulling from the game’s beloved soundtrack.

The film opened in U.S. theaters on April 1 and in mainland China on April 3. The $1 billion milestone puts it among the highest-grossing animated films of all time, though it still trails the first movie’s $1.3 billion run. On Douban, China’s equivalent of IMDb, it holds a steady 7.0 to 7.2 rating — decent for a video game adaptation, which is a genre that historically struggles with critics.

Digital release came on May 19, followed by Blu-ray and 4K physical editions on June 16. The new streaming availability on Chinese platforms means the movie is now accessible to a much wider domestic audience, particularly on mobile-first services like Bilibili where younger viewers tend to watch.