Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Movies Television Games

Video Game Adaptations Could Keep Beating Marvel at the Box Office in 2024 47

A recent video poked fun at the newly announced Legend of Zelda movie by referencing the checkered history of video game adaptations. However, 2023 brought critical and commercial success for games-based projects like The Last of Us and The Super Mario Bros Movie, while several comic book films such as The Flash and Ant-Man 3 underperformed.

This shift comes as Disney CEO Bob Iger admitted Marvel may have oversaturated the market. While caped crusaders aren't finished yet, their golden era may be ending. Meanwhile, Mario earned over $1 billion, topping all superhero films this year. Video game movies have struggled in the past, but their time may have finally come. Wired adds: Mario's success will lead to a "deluge" of video game adaptations, argues Joost van Druenen, a New York University business professor and author of One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games. Van Dreunen reckons that superheroes are "going the way of the cowboy," referring to the shifts in Hollywood's dominant genres (think: the rise of zombies a few years back, all the Home Alone-esque family movies in the 1990s). Even a show like The Boys, he argues, with its anti-superheroes, looks like a kind of turning point, akin to the revisionist Westerns, exemplified by Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, that began to dominate the genre at the end of the '60s and into the '70s.

Provided audiences are as tired of superheroes as pundits think, video game protagonists could profitably fill the gap. They come from well-known franchises and have large, engaged fan bases -- two things studios appreciate. Cast your eyes down the development list: God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, Assassin's Creed, continued expansion on The Witcher, among others. Nintendo, which has traditionally resisted film spinoffs, is planning a movie a year; Arcane, widely considered the first title (before The Last of Us) to break the curse of such adaptations, is finally getting a second season. Amazon's forthcoming Fallout series is being helmed by the same team as Westworld. [...] Back to superheroes, artist fatigue is one under-explored factor. Inspiration is lacking. Some are undoubtedly tired of the whole enterprise, but many are just tired of poor films: And clearly, these two factors entwine.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Video Game Adaptations Could Keep Beating Marvel at the Box Office in 2024

Comments Filter:
  • by jonadab ( 583620 ) on Thursday December 28, 2023 @12:28PM (#64112279) Homepage Journal
    No one could ever write a story that's not part of an existing media franchise. What an absurd thought. What even made me think of that? Pay no attention.
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Recycling is the in thing nowadays y'know.
    • yes but then there's a risk that it might flop. for the longest time the MCU was just a license to print money; why would they invest in anything else that might not have the same returns?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Morromist ( 1207276 )
      And its going to be great when the same terrible script writers and boring actors ruin our beloved video games just like they did with our superheros. At least if they made their own IP they wouldn't mess with the stuff we already love.
      • The idiot masses don't even notice that the movies don't follow the source material. And there are not enough actual comic book readers to support billion dollar movies. They have their hooks in video games now so watch out for Fortnite in a theater near you!
        • by taustin ( 171655 )

          The difference being, the video game market is actually larger than the movie market, and has been for some time. The fans will notice that it's "inspired by the title of a video game we haven't played."

          Probably won't make much difference at the box office, though.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I enjoyed The Last Of Us. I will never play the games, not my sort of thing, so I appreciate the opportunity to enjoy the story with a well done TV show.

  • Last of Us was essentially a playable drama, adaptation without losing something in translation is straightforward.

    The Super Mario Brothers Movie was a fun Movie that happened to use and reference the Mario Borthers games. Lots of freedom afforded to the movie since the franchise in question has never been much about things like heavy story and canon. A fun movie bolstered by lots of nostalgia and references to an utterly ubiquitous franchise.

    Sure, there's probably a few other properties that are ripe for

    • Didn't the most recent Sonic movie do well / receive critical praise as well? I'm wondering if you and I are forgetting other movies from the video game genre that are succeeding well enough to displace the recent garbage from MCU / DCEU
      • by taustin ( 171655 )

        $320 million worldwide on an $85-90 budget. Pretty successful to you and me, so-so to movie studios that can afford to dump $100 million into a single project.

    • Last of Us was essentially a playable drama....Sure, there's probably a few other properties that are ripe for adaptation,

      The thing is, there have been many, many more games in the last decade or so that are basically "playable dramas" - as budgets and game sizes have expanded, so has the writing and world building for lots of games.

      There's probably at least 30 top tier stories waiting to be mined from recent games, maybe more.

      • by Junta ( 36770 )

        It's rare for an adaptation to leave well enough alone.

        They barely touched Last of Us, which was the right move, to the extent there is a right move.

        However, they usually muck it up by the need to introduce some novelty, becuase it's hardly creative to present an existing story verbatim, and it's hard to get a creative work made with a staff willing to settle for a boring verbatim change.

        • However, they usually muck it up by the need to introduce some novelt

          I would agree they usually have in the past; however because The Last of Us made a boatload of money just by being a direct translation of the plot, I would argue it is more likely future efforts also just try to leave the story alone.

          Not that there will still not be some messing around with stories to the ultimate detriment, but there are enough stories there will be a fair number of really good adaptations I feel like.

  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Thursday December 28, 2023 @12:58PM (#64112357)

    The problem Marvel has is that all the Marvel stuff is inherently connected. So when you mess up one (or two or three or ten) movies/shows, you are poisoning the well as it were, for all further projects in that universe. The Marvels might have done better in theaters if the Secret Wars (or whatever it was called) TV show was not a steaming pile.

    But if you do a lot of video game adaptations, suddenly there are a lot of very distinct movies being produced. Let's say you screw up a movie or TV show based around Devil May Cry. That doesn't matter much for a Final Fantasy or Horizon: Zero Dawn movie because they are independant projects that can succeed on their own merits.

    • by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Thursday December 28, 2023 @01:26PM (#64112423) Homepage Journal

      "Oversaturation" is an investor-friendly thing to blame.

      Why didn't we make any money? Only because we work too hard. There's nothing wrong with the content quality or anything. Nah. We just created more awesome than the audience can handle.

      I don't think that's the reason the movies tanked.

      • by taustin ( 171655 )

        Repetitiveness if an inherent part of oversaturation. Once people have seen a movie, they are less and less interested in seeing the same movie over and over and over and over endlessly.

        This is nothing new from Hollywood. It's always been an industry driven by formulae. They get a big hit, and keep producing the same thing until the next big hit comes along that's not the same formula (which is doubly hard because that means a studio exec taking a chance on something new). Then they switch to the new formul

        • Once people have seen a movie, they are less and less interested in seeing the same movie over and over and over and over endlessly.

          That has a lot of subjective variation. I frequently rewatch Free Guy because it's a fun movie with a fun premise and a fun story. It's the same with Ready Player One and the early Marvel movies. There are other good movies and TV shows that I rewatch much less frequently because the enjoyment level of those offerings is slow to replenish.

          • by taustin ( 171655 )

            You're conflating "watching the same actual movie over and over because it's a favorite" and "making the same movie over and over after a global search and replace on the names." The former, most people do, though the actual favorites vary. The latter makes studios a lot of money, but only up to a point. Then people get bored with the formula and move on.

    • I realize the question filmmakers care about is whether their movie makes money, not whether rpresser can relate to it. But I have never played (and never will be playing) any of the games you just mentioned and so I won't be checking out any such movies.

      • But I have never played (and never will be playing) any of the games you just mentioned and so I won't be checking out any such movies.

        I wouldn't be so sure about that, there are a lot of games I've never played also, but some I know have excellent stories that the people who play them really love - I would see movies based on them, even though I had never played them.

        It could well be despite never having played the games, the story and characters alone would really appeal to you of a number of game based

      • by mz721 ( 9598430 )

        But I have never played (and never will be playing) any of the games you just mentioned and so I won't be checking out any such movies.

        Surely this is a bit like saying, I never read that book, so I'm not going to see the movie based on it, which would rule out around half movies, some of them pretty good. I mean, games are a kind of interactive fiction, in a sense.

        I don't play games at all, but I saw the D&D movie with my kids and it was a reasonable piece of entertainment.

        Since the form began movies have plundered other media for ideas and stories. And since movies began, having some name recognition in the marketplace has been seen a

    • by nomadic ( 141991 )

      Eh. With Loki they managed to sever everyone else and it worked well.

      • Eh. With Loki they managed to sever everyone else and it worked well.

        I liked Loki too, and one reason I really liked it was that I did internally think of it as a standalone story.

        So there is some possibility there - however I will note that a lot of Marvel fans did NOT like Loki because they didn't like it being so separated from the rest of Marvel, so even there being standalone it is somewhat drug back into the muck.

        If you start out with a game people love, you have no baggage to carry except that which

  • Considering there is only one Marvel movie on the slate this year, Deadpool 3. The rest were pushed out of this year into 2025 due to the strike and in one case rumors have it they want significant re-shoots. The last two Deadpool films pulled about the same amount at the box office: $782M and $785M worldwide. I'd expect this one to be around the same. Maybe bigger if it gets good initial reviews since it has Wolverine in it.

    There are also 3 Sony / Marvel co-productions but they are all Spider-man side c
    • by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      That said, video game movies rarely do well. Super Mario may be an "exception to the rule" at the box office.
      • by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Thursday December 28, 2023 @01:31PM (#64112433) Homepage Journal

        I might be wrong on this...but personally I think the key factors that determine how well a movie does at the box office are:

        1. Quality of the movie (including intrigue of the story, character identifiability and depth, visual quality, acting ability, and so on).
        2. Broadness of appeal (the more people in the target audience, the more money it makes)
        3. Popularity level of the lead actors
        4. Penetration level of the marketing campaign.
        5. Weakness of competing movies and/or other events at the time of release.

        I don't think "origin of the source material" is really that much of a factor. I guess it is a selling point if the origin is some famous author or whatever, but even then, if there is weakness on these other points the movie will still flop, and if these other points are strong the movie will do well even if it is completely-original from an author nobody has ever heard of.

        I dunno. Maybe I am too optimistic about this sort of thing.

        • The "quality of the movie" metric would probably be the least likely one to make money.
          • by taustin ( 171655 ) on Thursday December 28, 2023 @01:52PM (#64112531) Homepage Journal

            Depends on who gets to define it.

            Critics define it as "weird, boring shit that I like because the masses hate it." In that case, it's not a factor at all.

            Studios define it as "films that make us a lot of money." In that case, it's a huge factor.

            Producers define it as "big budget films, because you can't embezzle a million dollars out of a $3 million budget, but you certain can out of a $100 million budget." In that case, it's a medium important factor, indirectly, because those big budgets tend to go with high production values.

            Actors define it as "films that pay me a lot, and get me more roles that pay even better." Or, "Get me lots of adoring fans who will sleep with me." Or both. Not much of a factor at all.

            Moviegoers define it as "Films that entertain me." In that case, it's the only factor that matters.

  • Am I the only one who gets grossed out by these corporations pandering to their subculture?
  • by PaddirN ( 567657 ) on Thursday December 28, 2023 @01:29PM (#64112431)
    I'm more tired of poorly written crap. Disney was doing ok for awhile because the Marvel movies were at least competently written, not mind-blowing stuff or anything, just competent enough that the flaws weren't so glaring. Since they started pumping out Disney+ shows the quality of the writing has taken a nosedive, just lazy trash left and right. And somehow it's affected the movies because most of the movies have become formulaic now as well. Somehow even Taika Waititi couldn't even properly follow-up Thor Ragnarok (one of the best Marvel movies) and even his last movie was trash. Whether it's Star Wars or Marvel, their writing is rushed, transparent, and formulaic. Nothing logically connects and it's blatantly obvious that this convoluted scene is really just a vehicle to set up the next action scene, which leads to another convoluted scenario, and on and on. The last straw for me was Secret Invasion, just non-stop drivel and character assassination in service of just getting the plot from point A to point B, but no overall theme or soul to the show. I'm not tired of superhero movies, I'm tired of shitty writing that acts like the audience is too stupid to understand anything. Same with Star Wars, I'm just done with Disney's lack of quality in their scripts. Andor was this weird beacon of light that showed what a well-written Star Wars show could be and it just makes everything else look like trash in comparison.
    • Bro they have been releasing shit content since blade 1998. The movie that saved marvel. What a horrible movie.
    • by TomR teh Pirate ( 1554037 ) on Thursday December 28, 2023 @01:41PM (#64112485)
      I read your entire post and thought you were perhaps a bit unhinged, but then you got to Andor and I realized, "God damn it, he's not wrong." Andor showed that you don't need lots of action or CGI scenes to make a great suspense-driven program. This series was grade-A film quality all the way through. Then we get mediocre (at best!) drivel in the form of Mandalorian, Boba Fett, She Hulk, Wanda Vision, etc. Andor has strong rewatch value, the rest of these do not.
      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Wandavision and She Hulk were the highlights of the marvel TV shows. Maybe you didn't enjoy them, but that doesn't make them bad per se. Not like The Mandalorian, where even people who liked the first season were disappointed.

        I get the impression that Andor was the one left alone by Disney Corporate, a lot like DS9 was kinda separate because Berman was distracted with TNG and Voyager.

    • >I'm more tired of poorly written crap

      Superhero movies are not unlike westerns, or sci-fi. They are very flexible frameworks within which almost any story can be told.

      The fact that Marvel keeps repeating the same beats is not because the genre is limiting, it's because those beats made money in the past and they're risk-averse. But they also want growth, so they have to make their movies have broader appeal - which they don't know how to do so they focus instead on removing anything that they think mig

    • by dfm3 ( 830843 )
      Are you familiar with "Save the cat"? It's basically a 15-step beat sheet that most formulaic lazy writing falls in to. And once you're familiar with it, you'll start to see it everywhere and you'll find that most plots are very predictable.
  • ...problem solved, surf both trends/fads and eat your cake too.

  • If you have a hit movie, it's usually because it's a good movie. Stop making bad movies and you'll stop losing money.

    • If you have a hit movie, it's usually because it's a good movie. Stop making bad movies and you'll stop losing money.

      I'd argue your first point isn't reflective of reality. The Transformers franchise would like a word with you.

    • Movies make their money opening week before anyone has actually seen it. So the movie being "good" has little to do with it, and what defines "good" to most viewers isn't how much money it will make their pepsico/nestle/blackrock/johnson&johnson overlords.
    • Also the vast majority of people are stupid as fuck and would watch someone chop their balls off if that was the only option.
  • Everyone has gotten bored of the costumed ones.
    Now it is on to the video game ones.
    • For a long time the heroes were found in Westerns, then WWII flicks, then Vietnam flicks, then superhero flicks. The wheel turns, people eventually get bored with a genre, then move onto something else.
  • by hawk ( 1151 )

    Wake me up when they shoot a netback movie.

    @d

  • There have been video clips where a semi-creative put together all the cutscenes from the video game. Can't squeeze out any more story lines from a game you've finished a couple times over.

Riches: A gift from Heaven signifying, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." -- John D. Rockefeller, (slander by Ambrose Bierce)

Working...