The next frontier of Hollywood IP harvest

Hollywood has finally achieved its level.

For decades, studios have been trying to capitalize on the financial success and cultural relevance of video games, but things have only been clicked in the past few years.

At box office revenue Universal “Super Mario Bros. Movie” Warner Bros.’ “Minecraft Movie” is lined up with something like a TV Amazon Prime Video’s “Fallout” and HBO’s “The Last of Us” doubled their investment in content based on video game franchises and associated intellectual property.

“While popular game adaptations once filled with sophisticated cynicism and creative improper fire, recent blockbusters and commercial hits have overturned the curse,” says Sean Robbins, director of analysis for Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory.

this week, Paramount It has announced that it will develop a live-action Call of Duty movie and distribute the latest Street Fighter adaptation as part of its three-year distribution agreement with the legend. The development docket also has features based on Elden Ring, Heldy Birds, Horizon Zero Dawn, and The Legend of Zelda.

On the TV side, the treatments for Grave Raider, God of War, Mass Effects and Assassin’s Creed are working.

“The video game movies and TV shows aren’t new, but they certainly get better volumes and are getting better,” said Wedbush analyst Alicia Reese.

The first video game adaptation at Hit Theatre was in 1993 “Super Mario Bros.” The hit Nintendo property-based live-action feature tallyed $20.9 million domestically at the time and was widely panned by critics.

Over the next 20 years, Hollywood was able to make enough for the production budget that allowed the studio to continue to justify future adaptations, but it seemed there was always something lost in translation between game controllers and theaters.

Between 1993 and 2018, only over $100 million video game-based films were produced in 2001’s “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” 2001’s “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” 2016’s “The Angry Birds Movie,” 2018’s “Rampage,” 2001’s “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” and “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” according to ComScore data.

During this same period, no single video game film produced a “fresh” rating from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The site’s ratings have become a benchmark for the past 20 years as movie fans often consult their website before going to watch the movie.

Rotten Tomatoes aggregates reviews from major publications and reputable blogs to determine which percentage of those reviews are positive and negative. If at least 60% of movie reviews are positive, it receives a red tomato, which is considered “fresh.” If it is below 60%, you will receive a green splat.

And then something changed in 2019.

Warner Bro. “Pokemon Detective Pikachu” was not only carried domestically for $144 million, but also achieved a “fresh” rating of 68%. The film was the second-highest video game adaptation, with $433.5 million on global receipts. Universal’s 2016 “Warcraft” was the only film with higher ticket sales than it was back then, costing $433.6 million worldwide. However, only $47.3 million of that came from domestic audiences, Comscore reported.

A month before the pandemic shutdown, Paramount’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” hit theaters, earning a 64% “fresh” rating, winning $144 million domestically and $319 million worldwide.

That run was shorter, but audience turnout and enthusiasm led to two more theatrical Sonic films and a spin-off streaming show called “The Knuckles.” The franchise has generated over $1 billion at the global box office since 2019, with its fourth film announced in 2027.

The franchise debuted in April 2023 and paved the way for a “Super Mario Bros. film,” which smashed the box office revenue for video game adaptations. With $574 million domestically, the largest number of video game films ever, and over $1.3 billion worldwide, it is the first and only film to reach that feat.

Another industry hit was “A Minecraft Movie” in 2025, which exceeded $423 million in the US and Canada and $957 million at the global box office.

The key responses to “Super Mario” and “Minecraft” were 59% and 48% respectively, but viewers scored much stronger at 95% and 85% respectively.

“If it wasn’t for ‘Minecraft’, it’s honestly pretty brooding from the start of 2025,” said Doug Creutz, analyst at TD Cowen. “‘Minecraft’ really helped me during April. It’s usually a bit quiet.”

Video game films hit their journey as technological advances in computer-generated images have made the world within these digital spaces easier and more realistic.

Previous video game adaptations focused more on world building than character development, so Toby Usher, who won Sonic rights and produced the film franchise, told CNBC in March when discussing how Paramount handled the production of his first Sonic film.

Now that world building is easy, studio creatives can focus on the stories they bring to the big screen, industry analyst David Poland said.

“‘Minecraft is almost the background, like that world,” Poland said. “Then you can tell these stories in places where the obsession doesn’t make the background right, but people can get stories that are actually involved in. So, in a way, I think technology can help them get away from the game to some extent.

At the same time, the kids who grew up playing video games are now adults and are making these films.

“I don’t think anyone in town really thought it was a good idea to make a Sonic film,” Usher said in March. “But I think our strategy is that we grew up in these games. We grew up with these characters and wanted to treat them the same as the other characters. We wanted to give them a real emotional arc and a real emotional story that you could relate to them.”

Paramount Chairman and CEO David Ellison also announced a partnership with Activision to promote the fandom by bringing it to the big screen to Call of Duty.

“As a lifelong fan of Call of Duty, this really makes my dream come true,” Ellison said. “From the original Call of Duty’s first Allied campaign, through modern warfare and Black Ops, I’ve played this franchise that I absolutely love many times.”

The Entertainment Software Association estimates that over 205 million Americans play video games, with the most concentrated gamers from Gen Alpha, Gen Z and Millennials. Poland noted that this is a large audience of people who spent a lot of time on this type of IP.

“If film studios and theater owners want to meet the young audience they have and become a consistent part of the future of filmmakers, the video game world is not surprised by the undeveloped possibilities,” Robbins said.

“The additional benefit is that non-Gummer viewers can only discover when they appear in these films,” he added. “But quality is always king, so you need to be careful and listen to the audience. Ultimately, through social influencers and the content community, Gens Z and Alpha can pay a huge dividend to the film business.”

Painting the younger generation in cinemas is important when it comes to energizing the box office. Ultimately, rather than watching video game films grow the industry exponentially, analysts act as replacements for genres that don’t portray audiences, invite young demographics and train them to become more enthusiastic film fans.

“As a genre, video game adaptations represent a new frontier, allowing studios to look to such future projects and fill in the void left by inconsistent performances by films in the superhero category that have historically relied on key pillars of box office revenue.” “A virtual treasure trove of beloved brands, characters, situations and stories awaits producers and filmmakers who want to further cash out video game fever.”

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCuniversal and CNBC. NBCuniversal owns Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango.