Despite popular franchise titles like 鈥淛urassic World: Rebirth鈥, 鈥淪uperman鈥 and 鈥淢ission: Impossible 鈥 The Final Reckoning鈥 hitting the big screen this year, the biggest hit at the North American box office was based on a video game. 鈥淎 Minecraft Movie鈥 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 鈥淭he Super Mario Bros. Movie鈥, which was only beaten by 鈥淏arbie鈥 for the global box office crown in 2023, 鈥淎 Minecraft Movie鈥 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鈥檚 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 in the 1980s, is already working on a 鈥淟egend of Zelda鈥 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.
