How Hollywood fell in love with video games

Transforming pixel adventures into live-action films has long been a problem for Hollywood screenwriters, leading to flops like Street Fighter (1994) and Doom (2005). The developer of an acclaimed game admits that the big-screen adaptation from about a decade ago was the worst film he’d ever seen.

But now studios are reworking games and enjoying both commercial and critical success. Last year, “The Super Mario Bros” was the second highest-grossing film at the global box office. “The Last of Us,” a TV series based on a PlayStation game, won several Emmy Awards in January. More game adaptations are in the pipeline: Entertainment website IGN counts more than 70 games in development for film or television, including series based on “Tomb Raider” and “League of Legends,” and films based on “Zelda” and “Minecraft.”

What explains the craze for these game shows? One reason is that Hollywood’s favorite source of creative material, comic books, is getting boring. For two decades, superheroes have dominated the box office. But lately, each Marvel film seems to be less successful and less praised than the last. “The Marvels,” released in November, was the lowest-grossing yet. Games offer an alternative: “A wide selection of franchises, a built-in audience, storylines that last for years and endless opportunities for spin-off franchises,” says Fred Black of research firm Ampere Analysis.

The pioneers of the new wave of adaptations were Amazon Prime Video (which commissioned “Fallout”) and Netflix. Relatively new to Hollywood, these streaming companies have been busy handing out orders to gain subscribers. Unlike older competitors like Disney, which owns Marvel, they have a limited archive of intellectual property. “Most of the comic book franchises were already owned, so they had to come up with something else,” Mr. Black says. That something was games. Their success with titles like “Castlevania” (2017) and “The Witcher” (2019) caught the attention of Hollywood studios.

Changes in the gaming world have also helped. Gamer numbers have skyrocketed thanks to smartphones (which put a miniature console in everyone’s pocket) and the Covid-19 pandemic (which created millions of new gamers out of sheer boredom). Major titles like Minecraft are played by more than 100 million people every month, guaranteeing a large potential audience for movie spin-offs. The broader and aging pool of gamers makes it easier to get video game projects through in Hollywood. Previous generations of producers were confused by the games of youngsters; today’s moguls grew up with them.

Most major modern games lend themselves better to adaptation than their predecessors. Amazon’s Fallout has a sharp script and a strong cast, but its epic post-apocalyptic setting, twisted plot and rich backstory all derive from the game. The PlayStation version of The Last of Us was so cinematic that the opening scenes of Warner’s TV adaptation were barely altered. The main characters Joel and Ellie were already vividly drawn; the TV series borrowed much of the game’s dialogue.

For all the recent hits, game adaptations are still not as reliable as superheroes. Paramount’s “Halo” and Netflix’s “Resident Evil” have failed to live up to expectations. The biggest hits, Mr. Black says, are usually either so well-known that even non-gamers recognize the brand (think “Mario,” “Sonic” or “Angry Birds”) or so compelling that their digital origins no longer matter (“The Last of Us” or “Fallout”). The explosive first episode of “Fallout” is titled “The End.” For games on the big screen, this is just the beginning.

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