Videogame Movies: Failure & Future

VIDEOGAME MOVIES: FAILURE & FUTURE

More than 1'200'000'000 people have played some form of video games, and this figure has had a recent spike with the introduction of 'next generation' games. However, we fail to see the cinematic expansions of these films succeed at the box office.

List of release or upcoming video game film releases

Title	Release date	Box Office	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic	Original game publisher
			Overall
Super Mario Bros.	May 28, 1993	$20,915,465	16%[3]	N/A	Nintendo
Double Dragon	November 4, 1994	$2,341,309	0%[4]	N/A	Technōs Japan
Street Fighter	December 23, 1994	$99,423,521	12%[5]	N/A	Capcom
Mortal Kombat	August 18, 1995	$122,195,920	33%[6]	58/100[7]	Midway Games
Mortal Kombat: Annihilation	November 21, 1997	$51,376,861	6%[8]	11/100[9]	Midway Games
Wing Commander	March 12, 1999	$11,578,059	10%[10]	21/100[11]	Origin Systems
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider	June 15, 2001	$274,703,340	19%[12]	33/100[13]	Eidos
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within	July 11, 2001	$85,131,830	44%[14]	49/100[15]	Square
Resident Evil	March 15, 2002	$102,441,078	33%[16]	33/100[17]	Capcom
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life	July 25, 2003	$156,505,388	24%[18]	43/100[19]	Eidos
House of the Dead	October 10, 2003	$13,818,181	4%[20]	15/100[21]	Sega
Resident Evil: Apocalypse	September 10, 2004	$129,394,835	21%[22]	35/100[23]	Capcom
Alone in the Dark	January 28, 2005	$10,442,808	1%[24]	9/100[25]	Infogrames
Doom	October 21, 2005	$55,987,321	19%[26]	34/100[27]	id Software
BloodRayne	January 6, 2006	$3,650,275	4%[28]	18/100[29]	Majesco
Silent Hill	April 21, 2006	$97,607,453	29%[30]	30/100[31]	Konami
DOA: Dead or Alive	September 7, 2006	$7,516,532	34%[32]	38/100[33]	Tecmo
Postal	July 21, 2007	$146,741	7%[34]	22/100[35]	Ripcord Games
Resident Evil: Extinction	September 21, 2007	$147,717,833	22%[36]	41/100[37]	Capcom
Hitman	November 21, 2007	$99,965,792	14%[38]	35/100[39]	Eidos
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale	January 11, 2008	$13,097,915	4%[40]	15/100[41]	Microsoft Game Studios
Far Cry	October 2, 2008	N/A	N/A	N/A	Ubisoft
Max Payne	October 17, 2008	$85,416,905	16%[42]	31/100[43]	Remedy Entertainment/Rockstar Games
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li	February 25, 2009	$12,764,201	18%[44]	17/100[45]	Capcom
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	May 28, 2010	$335,154,643	36%[46]	50/100[47]	Ubisoft
Resident Evil: Afterlife	September 10, 2010	$296,221,663	23%[48]	37/100[49]	Capcom
Resident Evil: Retribution	September 14, 2012	$240,159,255	30%[50]	39/100[51]	Capcom
Silent Hill: Revelation 3D	October 26, 2012	$52,302,796	6%[52]	15/100[53]	Konami
Need for Speed	March 14, 2014	$186,062,000	23%[54]	39/100[55]	Electronic Arts
Heavenly Sword[56]	June 2014[56]	TBC	TBC	TBC	Ninja Theory
Resident Evil: Rising[57][58]	September 12, 2014	TBC	TBC	TBC	Capcom
Agent 47[59]	2015	TBC	TBC	TBC	Square Enix
Assassin's Creed[60]	August 7, 2015[61]	TBC	TBC	TBC	Ubisoft
Ratchet and Clank[62]	2015	TBC	TBC	TBC	Insomniac Games
Warcraft[63]	March 11, 2016[64]	TBC	TBC	TBC	Blizzard Entertainment
Angry Birds[65]	July 1, 2016	TBC	TBC	TBC	Rovio Entertainment
Metal Gear Solid	2016[66]	TBC	TBC	TBC	Konami
Temple Run	TBC	TBC	TBC	TBC	Imangi Studios
Sly Cooper [67]	Q1 2016	TBC	TBC	TBC	Sucker Punch Productions
Mass Effect	2018-2019[66]	TBC	TBC	TBC	Bioware
Untitled Tomb Raider reboot[68]	TBC	TBC	TBC	TBC	Square Enix
Just Cause: Scorpion Rising[69][70]	TBC	TBC	TBC	TBC	Square Enix
Deus Ex: Human Revolution[71]	TBC	TBC	TBC	TBC	Square Enix
Splinter Cell[72]	TBC	TBC	TBC	TBC	Ubisoft
Mortal Kombat reboot[73]	TBC	TBC	TBC	TBC	NetherRealm Studios
The Last of Us[74][75]	TBC	TBC	TBC	TBC	Naughty Dog
Gran Turismo[76]	TBC	TBC	TBC	TBC	Polyphony Digital
Uncharted[77]	TBC	TBC	TBC	TBC	Naughty Dog
Shadow of the Colossus[78]	TBC	TBC	TBC	TBC	SCE Japan Studio (Team Ico)

Source: Wikipedia

The average score for all video game movies on Rotten Tomatoe's database is an abysmal 18%. The relation with most of these movies is the director, Uwe Boll, purchases the film licenses from the game companies, and instantly thinks his films will be big hits due the the existing audience.

Case Study: Resident Evil
-'[Resident Evil: 2] Narratively closer the the video game' Stephen Harper, Jump Cut article
-'they help to generate commercial synergy with the video games on which they are based.' Stephen Harper, Jump Cut article.
-Remains the most successful, at the box office, example of a video game movie and series.

Resident Evil: the first four

Quotes
'Just because past video game movies have been bad doesn't mean they can never be good.' Colin McIsaac, Gamnesia
'Thus far, video game movies have been nothing but critical flops.' Colin McIsaac, Gamnesia
'In essence, game companies wouldn't dare risk their most popular brands becoming a bad joke to the film industry.' Colin McIsaac, Gamnesia

However,  I disagree with this last statement, not only are more video games in the process of being made, but we see these games belonging to hugely popular franchises or big companies. It seems lately, video game companies are prepared to take more or a risk for the possibility of a high payoff and success. For example, we see the Assassins Creed franchise getting an cinematic expansion, that franchise has 10 video games and its annual releases see constant success. The latest Assassins Creed video game release sold 73 million copies, this figure continues to grow yet Ubisoft are willing to risk the franchises credibility on a video game movie.

The Assassin's Creed Franchise

Is the risk worth it?


How much does the actual Videogame aid to the success or failure of the film?
-established fanbase
-existing storyline, opportunity to expand on a character or plot line that exists int he video game. - If the films differentiate from the story too much, it usually sees failure, for example 'Doom' - Jay the IT guy, SSSFC, 2014
-videogame ratings and general popularity (Angry Birds)
-lack of interactivity, therefore less emersion
-lack of things like star power in these films (Micheal Fassbender as Desmond Miles)
-maybe the film will look too different to the video game and split from its origins (Resident Evil)
-level of finance that these video games have.