The word’s gone out along the Rainbow Road and across the galaxy today: The most anticipated new movie hitting Netflix this December officially won’t be some new holiday flick or Bradley Cooper’s prestige play Maestro. It’ll be the second-biggest box-office hit of the year, a 92-minute, Chris Pratt–led explosion of shock, awe, and chroma sure to captivate your younger relatives and possibly even pump some Nintendo holiday sales. I am speaking, of course, of The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
This was always part of the plan. Netflix and Universal have a long-standing 18-month licensing agreement: The latter’s animated films generally enjoy a theatrical run followed by a four-month stint on the NBCUniversal-owned Peacock, then head to Netflix for ten months, and then go back to Peacock for at least another four. Mario is enough of a crowd-pleaser to have made nearly $1.4 billion at the box office this year (second only to Barbie), so it’s a nice get for Netflix users who don’t have Peacock. And for Netflix? Anything to rebottle the Suits lightning before Q4 wraps up. The Super Mario Bros. Movie races onto Netflix on Sunday, December 3.