If at first you don’t succeed, take out the game, blow into the cartridge, and try again. That’s what Hollywood did after its mostly forgettable attempts at adapting video games for the big screen in the 1990s. Now, video game adaptations are big business, and the entertainment and gaming industries are fully in co-op mode.
Collecting coins: In its never-ending quest for strong intellectual property, Hollywood has found that nostalgia for familiar video game characters can sell a lot of tickets, bringing in both gamers and people who wouldn’t know the difference between Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man (it’s the bow). Per Box Office Mojo:
- The fifth-highest-grossing film of the year so far is The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which raked in more than $1 billion worldwide.
- Last year, A Minecraft Movie also landed in the No. 5 spot, grossing $960 million worldwide.
- The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has also made more than $1 billion at the global box office since 2020.
The commercial and critical success of Fallout and The Last of Us has shown that video games can translate to TV as well.
Side quests: Strong intellectual property can swing both ways. In June, Paramount unveiled its own gaming studio to turn its TV and film IP into video games. Warner Bros. Discovery, which Paramount is trying to acquire, also has its own in-house game studio.
Different levels: The entertainment industry is working other angles, too—movies are being promoted inside video games; Amazon and Netflix have added games to their platforms; and when the latest GTA VI trailer debuted on Netflix, it attracted more viewers that week than any of the streamer’s titles.—BC
