The Super Mario Bros. Movie in the context of "Mushroom Kingdom"

Illumination (formerly known as Illumination Entertainment) is an American animation studio founded by Chris Meledandri on January 17, 2007. It is a division of Universal Pictures, which itself is a division of Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, a unit of NBCUniversal; Illumination produces the films, while Universal finances and distributes them. The studio is best known for creating the Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets, and Sing franchises; the adaptations of Dr. Seuss' books The Lorax and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!; and Nintendo video games, starting with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The Minions, characters from the Despicable Me series, are the mascots of the studio.

Illumination has produced 15 feature films, with an average gross of $711 million per film. Three of the studio's films—Minions (2015), Despicable Me 3 (2017) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)—are all among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, with the latter having the highest-grossing opening for an animated film in its initial release; eight of their films are also among the 50 highest-grossing animated films. Its first film, Despicable Me, was released on July 9, 2010, and its latest film, Despicable Me 4, was released on July 3, 2024; their upcoming slate of films includes The Super Mario Galaxy Movie on April 3, 2026, and Minions 3 on July 1, 2026. Additionally, an untitled film is scheduled for release on April 16, 2027.

Mario is a video game series and media franchise created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo. Starring Mario, the franchise began with video games but has extended to other forms of media, including a television series, comic books, a 1993 film, a 2023 film, and a theme park area. Mario made his first video game appearance in the arcade game Donkey Kong (1981) and was featured in multiple Donkey Kong games prior to Mario Bros. (1983), the first game with "Mario" in the title. Mario video games have been developed by a variety of developers, with the vast majority produced and published by Nintendo and released exclusively on Nintendo's video game consoles.

The flagship Mario subseries is the Super Mario series of platform games starting with 1985's Super Mario Bros., which mostly follows Mario's adventures in the fictional world of the Mushroom Kingdom and typically rely on Mario's jumping ability to allow him to progress through levels. The franchise has spawned over 200 games of various genres and several subseries, including Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Paper Mario, and Mario & Luigi; several characters introduced in the Mario franchise, such as Luigi, Wario, and Yoshi, sparked successful franchises of their own.

Christopher Meledandri (/mɛləˈdɑːndri/; born May 15, 1959) is an American film producer and founder and CEO of Illumination. He previously served as president of 20th Century Fox Animation, working as the executive producer for the Blue Sky Studios-produced films Ice Age (2002), Robots (2005), Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006), and Horton Hears a Who! (2008). Since 2010, he has worked as the producer for the film series of Despicable Me, The Secret Life of Pets, and Sing. In 2021, he joined Nintendo's board of directors after working with the video game company on The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023). Meledandri also collaborates with Illumination's corporate sibling DreamWorks Animation since 2016.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is an upcoming animated adventure comedy film based on the 2007 video game Super Mario Galaxy and Nintendo's broader Mario franchise. The sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), it is being directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic and written by Matthew Fogel. Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, and Kevin Michael Richardson reprise their roles, while Benny Safdie and Brie Larson join the cast. It is being produced by Illumination and Nintendo, and distributed by Universal Pictures.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa stated in May 2021 that Nintendo was interested in producing more animated films based on its properties if the then-untitled Mario film was successful. Illumination CEO and producer Chris Meledandri was asked about the possibility of a sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie before the film's release in April 2023. Following its box office success, a new animated Mario film was announced to be in development at Illumination in March 2024, with Horvath and Jelenic returning as directors and Fogel as screenwriter.