- Hollywood is increasingly incorporating video games into movies and TV shows.
- This trend is in contrast to the decline in interest in manga originals.
- Video game studios are wary of adaptations that could infringe on their intellectual property.
People are getting tired of watching The Avengers. But Hollywood has an alternative plan: video games.
According to the Wall Street Journal, seven major movies to be released in 2023 were based on video games, including “Grand Turismo'' and “Five Nights at Freddy's.''
The trend continues, with at least 19 TV shows based on video games appearing last year, according to London-based market data firm Ampere Analysis. “BioShock'' and “God of War'' are currently available on Amazon Prime and Netflix, respectively.
Ampere found that Hollywood shifted the focus of its movies and TV shows last year away from comic books in favor of video game adaptations like “The Last of Us.''
“Super Mario Bros. Movie” earned $1.36 billion in 2023, making it the second-highest grosser after “Barbie.” Both films have surpassed the latest installments of Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse'' and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.''
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at media analysis firm Comscore, told the Journal that studios are starting to realize that “things may be rosier sooner” when it comes to adapting comic books into movies. .
Superhero movies earned about $1 billion domestically in 2023, down 42% from the previous year, according to Comscore. Meanwhile, movies based on video games earned $712.2 million, more than double the 2022 total, the outlet said.
Despite this success, video game studios have been cautious about film and television adaptations. Gamers are a passionate fan base. This is an opportunity for Hollywood, but also a challenge for video game studios worried about the threat it poses to their brands.
“If they don't like something, they'll tell you,” Helen Juguet, managing director of Ubisoft Film & Television, told the Journal.
For example, Netflix canceled Resident Evil in 2022 after just one season. Fans of the popular video game series called it “the most boring, pointless trash” of the year that “has nothing in common with the original,” Newsweek reported. at that time.
Forbes magazine blamed the show's low audience review scores on “racist review bombing,” given that Lance Reddick, who is black, played a normally white character in a video game. It was reported that this may be the cause.
According to the magazine, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnik said during an earnings call in November 2023 that game studios “risk infringing on the underlying intellectual property” when making adaptations. “Yes,” he said.
“That's a high bar,” Zelnik said during the call.
Video game adaptations usually get a bad rap as boring retellings, especially from younger gamers. Members of the University of Miami Electronic Gaming Association told the school's publication that they believe film adaptations will be more popular with audiences if game creators have more say in the storytelling. He said he is doing so.
Game and movie studios are embedding themselves in places like Discord and Reddit communities, where they can learn first-hand what young gamers think about their products, the magazine reported. One of his common discoveries is that gamers enjoy “Easter eggs,” or small nods to the source material.
Adan Razak, a 22-year-old software engineer from Austin, noticed, for example, that there was an Easter egg in the 2022 Netflix series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and he wondered if the production team would take him into account as a gamer. He told the media that he felt like he was A spectacle, a show, a play.
Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, is a director of Netflix.
