Mario Movie
Image: Nintendo, Illumination

The Mario Movie has now officially surpassed $1 billion at the global box office, and while a lot of people around the world have probably already seen it, a recent illegal upload on social media has also got some serious attention.

As reported by Forbes, a Twitter account known as "vids that go hard" recently uploaded the entirety of The Super Mario Bros. Movie in two parts. Twitter wasn't exactly quick to respond, with the videos apparently reaching a whopping nine million views in just seven hours before the account - with over a million followers - was suspended.

Although illegal movie uploads like this aren't exactly out of the ordinary in certain corners of the internet, what's somewhat surprising is how long the videos were live on this major social platform. Forbes links it to Twitter being understaffed (with mods also believed to be "asleep at the wheel") after recent lay-offs, along with some new upload options for Twitter Blue subscribers.

Under new ownership, the paid Twitter Blue subscription now allows users to upload hour-long high-quality videos, which means movie-length clips like this could potentially appear more regularly on the platform. It's not just Twitter, either. GoNintendo reports seeing the "entire film" uploaded to YouTube as well. YouTube typically flags and removes these types of uploads pretty quickly.

Nintendo and Illumination likely won't be happy to hear about this, but at least they have already banked big at the box office - with the film grossing $490 million in North America and $532 million internationally in just 26 days. If you really can't hold out for the Mario Movie, but don't want to go to the cinema to see it - be on the lookout for the disc and official digital release in the near future, with pre-orders now live.

Have you seen the Mario Movie yet? Comment below.

[source forbes.com]