The Super Mario Bros. Movie Twitter Leak Was A Mistake That Let 9M Fans Watch For Free
"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" has been an unprecedented hit as far as video game adaptations go. However, as the movie passes the $1 billion mark in worldwide box office receipts, some fans have been saving money by just watching the film on Twitter.
Now, if that sounds very illegal to you, it's because it definitely is. Still, that didn't stop Twitter Blue subscriber @vidsthatgohard from uploading the entire movie to the social media platform for anyone online to watch for free. Though the video has since been taken down, it was up for over several hours before the moderators caught wind of it and took it down.
However, in that time period, the film was able to garner over 9 million views. Whether any of those who watched would have actually gone to the theater to see "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is a hard thing to quantify, but it's unlikely that the notoriously litigation-happy Nintendo will take this lying down.
Whether Nintendo will take legal action remains to be seen
If you're a Nintendo fan at all, you'll know that the company does not mess around when it comes to its properties. Everyone from modders to game preservationists have been hit with cease and desist requests at best and jail time at worst for messing with The Big N. While the account that uploaded "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" has yet to face any punishment from Twitter as of yet, they can probably look forward to a legal notice coming their way if Nintendo has anything to say about it.
However, the mistake also speaks volumes about how far Twitter has fallen as a platform since billionaire Elon Musk took over as CEO. Following mass layoffs and one mounting controversy after another, it doesn't seem like Musk is able to gain control of Twitter today any more than he could six months ago when he took control of the service.
After all, doing 1-hour uploads is a new addition that's been offered to Twitter Blue subscribers, and this seemingly tiny caveat allowed one user to upload an illegal copy of the biggest movie in the world in two posts with no repercussions. Whether Nintendo will be coming for Musk's pocketbook as well as the account that uploaded the video remains to be seen but look forward to hearing more about this in the future, as Nintendo is unlikely to let this go, especially considering the popularity of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."