Are Video Game Movies Ready to Level Up?

Despite popular franchise titles like “Jurassic World: Rebirth”, “Superman” and “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” hitting the big screen this year, the biggest hit at the North American box office was based on a video game. “A Minecraft Movie” starring Jack Black, grossed $424 million domestically and almost $1 billion worldwide, highlighting the huge potential that lies in popular video game IP. Following in the footsteps of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”, which was only beaten by “Barbie” for the global box office crown in 2023, “A Minecraft Movie” is now the second most successful video game adaptation of all time, fueling hopes that movies based on video games could be the next Hollywood cash cow.

With younger audiences more likely to have grown up with video games than with comic books, there’s a ton of popular video game IP to be mined by the film industry, always looking for new franchise opportunities. Nintendo, which had abandoned its movie ambitions after its failed first attempt at box office glory in the 1980s, is already working on a “Legend of Zelda” movie, hoping to replicate the success of the latest Mario movie. According to a survey of game developers, 36 percent of AAA video game studios were somehow working on movie or TV adaptations of their games this year, showing the growing ambition of the industry to capitalize on its strong IP.