The Mario movie has been delayed, just like everything else these days

Moves into Spring, away from the December season

Shigeru Miyamoto himself has announced a delay to the release of the Super Mario movie, busting through our bedroom walls and shattering our hearts into millions of pieces.

This is Miyamoto. After consulting with Chris-san, my partner at Illumination on the Super Mario Bros. film, we decided to move the global release to Spring 2023–April 28 in Japan and April 7 in North America. My deepest apologies but I promise it will be well worth the wait.

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) April 26, 2022

In reality, while the reasoning wasn’t specifically stated, it’s likely due to a few factors. The pandemic is one, and there may need to be film changes (Miyamoto-san is a perfectionist) but there’s also the release timing. December 21st, the original date, was just days after Avatar 2 and Shazam 2, two movies which will undoubtedly dominate the holiday season for families and moviegoers alike. There simply isn’t enough mindshare (and maybe movie theaters?) all at once at that time, so pushing it to April of 2023 could be very advantageous. It’s worked for Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and has recently been a good time for films at the run up to end of the school year and before the Summer blockbusters.

Or maybe they’re just delaying everything to Spring 2023 because that’s when the next Switch will launch and they’re just doing everything at once.