Video gaming’s most iconic character is back. Yet even in his own sequel, Mario is in danger of being outshone.

"The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" is on track to be one of the biggest box-office openings of the year, with an estimated $350 million haul worldwide expected in its first five days. That puts it in rare territory for an animated franchise, but should come as no surprise to anyone who watched the success of 2023’s movie. Like its sequel, it was panned by critics but went on to be the second-highest grossing flick that year.

It’s not all down to the plumber. Gamers were stunned when Nintendo Co. dropped news just days before it released that the film would also feature Fox McCloud, a vulpine hot-shot pilot (voiced, naturally, by "Top Gun: Maverick’s" Glen Powell) from "Star Fox" — a long-running Nintendo series that’s completely unconnected to Mario.

Everyone knows Nintendo has deep stores of intellectual property. And since it got into the movie business, fans have wondered if it would look to follow in the footsteps of Marvel and combine those different series into interconnected entries. It’s a tempting target: What became known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is the largest grossing franchise in history, with a combined haul of over $30 billion. "Star Fox" appearing alongside "Mario" could be the first step to follow a template Nintendo already laid in gaming with "Super Smash Bros.," a fighting game that brings together characters from its disparate properties — pitching Pikachu against Luigi, Kirby versus the duck and dog from the '80s game "Duck Hunt."

Creator Shigeru Miyamoto has sought to pour cold water on the idea of a "Smash Bros."-style all-Nintendo blockbuster, and said that the idea of adding Fox came from Chris Meledandri, the founder of movie partner Illumination and a Nintendo external board member. But the firm has made no secret of plans to expand its cinematic ambitions, and said more cameos are possible.

The live-action "Zelda" movie, the latest in what it has promised will be a slate of cinematic releases, will be out next year. The company has already set up Nintendo Pictures, a dedicated animation company for video content using its intellectual property. So far that has resulted only in a short based on the strategy video game "Pikmin" last year, but no doubt more is in store.

For Nintendo, movies and videos themselves aren’t the point. Despite its global success, the first "Mario" film didn’t make a huge contribution to its bottom line. The segment capturing that revenue saw sales nearly double from a year earlier to 92.7 billion yen ($582 million), but that’s just over 5% of the company’s total. Far more important is how multimedia helps boost the visibility and popularity of the characters beyond gamers, and brings new users to its consoles.

The firm credits the movie with boosting sales of older Mario titles that year by 30%. And when "Super Mario Bros. Wonder" launched a few months later, it became the fastest-selling title in the franchise and has more than 17 million units sold to date. Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal is among those who expect Nintendo to pull the same trick again and announce a new marquee "Mario" game in summer for release later this year.

The question for Nintendo is whether it can elevate second-tier properties like "Star Fox," which has been dormant for a decade. No one was better at doing this than Marvel, which turned lesser-known characters like Iron Man into beloved household names. But it seems to have lost the touch in recent years, with a series of flops centered on recast heroes. Disney has been forced to sheepishly go back to the well with this year’s "Avengers: Doomsday," reintroducing "Captain America" star Chris Evans and casting Robert Downey Jr. as the villain.

While Disney sought to wring every last dollar out of Marvel, Nintendo plays a longer game. Its strategy paid off on Switch as once-minor franchises became multi-million sellers. But can it now use its movie business to elevate them into blockbusters? Results so far are mixed: A push to elevate Donkey Kong, a prominent character in the first Mario movie, hasn’t translated into stellar sales of last year’s "Donkey Kong Bananza."

"Donkey Kong" will likely continue to be a seller throughout the life of the Switch 2. With Donald Glover voicing Yoshi — and throwing out the first pitch at a recent Los Angeles Dodgers game in a crossover with ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto — perhaps some of that magic will rub off on "Yoshi and the Mysterious Book," which releases next month.

But the next challenge for Nintendo is to drive up interest in the likes of "Star Fox," "Pikmin" and "F-Zero," while avoiding the fatigue that saw the world sour on superheroes. Mario might be a superstar. But as Marvel, or indeed the Dodgers, can attest to, you also need to have a deep bench.

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This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Gearoid Reidy is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Japan and the Koreas. He previously led the breaking news team in North Asia, and was the Tokyo deputy bureau chief.

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