Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto believes the blockbuster success of 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' is partly thanks to negative reviews by foreign press.

The big-screen video game adaptation has had record-breaking success and is close to making a whopping $1 billion at the box office, and the 70-year-old creator of the 'Mario' franchise says critics of the flick - which sees Chris Pratt voice mascot Mario - have actually had a hand in the animation's global killing at the box office.

Speaking to the press before the movie's launch in Japan this week, VGC translated Miyamoto as saying: “While many foreign critics have given the movie relatively low ratings, I think that also contributed to the movie’s notoriety and buzz.

“I did have a level of expectations that this movie would also do well [like 'Super Nintendo World'], but I was very surprised that it went beyond what I could have imagined when it finally came out.”

However, fans didn't agree with the reviewers.

Upon the film's release, the Rotten Tomatoes score for critics jumped from 53 to 59, and the audience reviews sit at an impressive 96 per cent.