Less than two weeks after celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pokémon, gamers - and perhaps investors - are now recognizing March 10, which marks the annual celebration of Nintendo's (OTC: NTDOY) flagship character, Super Mario.
Mario Day, conceived as an unofficial occasion by Super Mario fans, celebrates the popular video game character who has appeared across some of the bestselling video games of all time.
The date March 10 written in abbreviated form spells out Mario, with the "1" and zero replaced by the letters "I" and "O."
Nintendo, which owns the franchise, began celebrating the holiday in 2016.
Mario made his debut in the 1981 video game "Donkey Kong" as "Jumpman." Nintendo would give Mario his own game with the 1983 release "Mario Bros." starring Mario and Luigi. Shigeru Miyamoto, the Japanese video game designer, created Mario as well as Donkey Kong, Starfox and The Legend of Zelda.
Mario's introduction boosted Nintendo's presence as a video game company, which traces its history back to 1889 as a playing card company.
Each year on the holiday, Nintendo and many retailers offer discounted Mario and Nintendo games and items to celebrate the legend of the video game character. This includes deals on Nintendo Switch consoles and gaming bundles, Lego sets and more Mario-related items.
Nintendo Hopes For Box Office Magic In 2026
In addition to being an icon in video games, Nintendo is working hard to further monetize Mario's legend.
Mario and other Nintendo characters are part of a push to expand Comcast Corp's (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Universal Studios theme parks.
Comcast and its Illumination unit also partnered with Nintendo to bring Mario and his friends back to the big screen.
"The Super Mario Bros" movie released in theaters in 2023. It grossed $574.9 million domestically and $787 million internationally for a global total of $1.36 billion.
The animated movie starring - Chris Pratt, Seth Rogen, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black and Keegan-Michael Key - was the second-highest-grossing film domestically and worldwide, trailing only the "Barbie" movie. It marked the first theatrical Mario movie since the 1993 live-action movie "Super Mario Bros."
A sequel movie titled "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" is set to be released in theaters on April 1. Polymarket users currently expect "Galaxy" to be the top-grossing film of 2026, ranking slightly ahead of "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" at the time of writing, with a narrow 38% to 37% advantage.
For Nintendo and Universal Pictures, the film could mean big box-office revenue and a continuation of efforts to monetize the popular video game character.