The success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, is spurring the industry to get in the game with video game adaptations. This week, we’re publishing stories from our MIPCOM magazine issue that dive into the lucrative-if-done-right art of turning video games into films and series. Today, we dive right into why kidcos are rethinking the seemingly cursed video game adaptation. 

After 30 years of mostly failed attempts to adapt video games as movies and TV series, the industry may have finally figured out a formula that works. Funnily enough, the so-called “curse” of the video game adaptation was arguably started and broken by the same IP—Nintendo’s Mario.

In 1993, Hollywood Pictures released Super Mario Bros. And though it was groundbreaking as the first-ever live-action movie based on a video game, the project was a massive commercial and critical disappointment, paving the way for a long line of underwhelming video game adaptations.

Nintendo’s iconic plumber returned to the big screen 30 years later, this time as the CG-animated protagonist of a movie that was much more faithful to the Mario games. These key changes paid off fast. To date, Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie has raked in nearly US$1.4 billion at the global box office.

Its success, and the popularity of other recent projects including Netfllix’s Emmy Award-winning animated TV series Arcane (based on Riot Games’ League of Legends) and Paramount’s live-action/animated Sonic movies, are changing buyers’ and viewers’ perceptions of video game adaptations— and actually bolstering demand for them.

So why are video game adaptations, especially animated ones, finally resonating with more mainstream audiences?

Jean Julien Baronnet, founder and CEO of LA-based Marla Studios (Talking Tom, Temtem) and producer of Netflix game adaptation Rabbids Invasion, attributes much of the new Mario movie’s success to the fact that it appeals to both longtime fans of the game and non-fans. “Not only is the movie good, the non-Mario fans actually want to play the game after watching it, even though the movie doesn’t serve as a marketing tool to promote the game,” says Baronnet.

Lesser-known games like Crema’s Temtem (pictured) and Drinkbox’s Guacamelee! have a ton of adaptation potential, according to Marla Studios’ Jean Julien Baronnet.

And although The Super Mario Bros. Movie wasn’t forecast to be a massive hit based on past failures and the perhaps too-high expectations of fans, the fact that it did become a phenomenon isn’t that surprising, considering how much kids are gaming with their families these days. This may also explain why overall demand for video game adaptations is growing.

Social gaming on the rise

According to UK-based research firm The Insights Family, family gaming is trending around the world. “Video games are now being seen as a way for kids to socialize,” says Rachel Bardill, SVP of marketing and product. “And socializing with friends and family is the number-one reason why kids are currently playing video games globally. Plus, gaming is now something that is increasingly a choice for parents.”

Adapting well-known, nostalgic gaming brands like Angry Birds—which appeals both to parents who grew up with the original game, and to their kids who are more familiar with newer iterations of the property—is often a sound strategy for producers looking to adapt video games, notes Bardill. “If you’ve got a proven format that you can exploit in the cinema, and then actually make a great film, that is a winning formula.” (Sony’s 2016 animated feature The Angry Birds Movie and 2019 sequel The Angry Birds Movie 2 collectively earned more than US$500 million globally on a combined budget of US$138 million, according to Box Office Mojo.)

Baronnet adds that buyers who may have been hesitant to invest in a video game adaptation in the past—due to factors such as the high cost of animation or the format’s poor track record, for example—are now actively seeking out companies like Marla to find the next big hit. “Usually, we are [the ones] contacting the clients or even the streamers; but now the streamers are calling us and asking us what we have for IPs,” he says.

It’s not all fantasy

Owning big brands—particularly fantasy brands, which are dominating the adaptation space right now—is always advantageous. But if producers can’t afford to acquire or partner up for them, there are thousands of smaller gaming IPs in the market that could become hits, too, says Baronnet.

“Yes, most of the big IPs are fantasy. And because they are often cheaper to make in animation than live action/VFX, we’re seeing more of them. But fantasy today is low-hanging fruit. Looking at all the projects we’re working on, and the ones I’m seeing in the market, I don’t think fantasy will be the biggest genre of video game adaptations in the future.”

Among its new projects, Marla is currently developing an animated kids TV series based on Drinkbox Studios’ action brawler Guacamelee!, which is inspired by traditional Mexican culture and folklore. “It’s a [relatively] small property with about 10 million gamers, but we think it has huge potential. So, don’t only look at the big IPs,” advises Baronnet.

Bardill, on the other hand, doesn’t see the fantasy genre losing steam any time soon when it comes to spawning on-screen entertainment for kids and families. “Fantasy goes hand in hand with fandom, and helps to create these massive lifelong relationships fans have with brands,” she says. “The Harry Potter effect has created several generations of people who love getting totally immersed in complex and layered storylines, which also translates to fantasy games. So it makes sense that you can create these expansive, multifaceted series adaptations that have the potential to go in so many different directions.”

Fantasy or not, Baronnet sees a bright future ahead for video game adaptations. “The video game world is so diverse, and I think it’s possibly more creative than the movie and TV business,” he says. “It’s amazing to see how many new concepts and worlds get created.”

So what about the curse? Is it actually over? If new video game adaptations for kids and families are going to have a better shot at commercial and critical success, film and TV producers and video game companies need to execute better creative collaborations, says Baronnet.

“Streamers need to better understand video game companies, and vice versa, to ensure that the adaptations will be true to the DNA of the games. Then there is the power of negotiation to keep creative control of the game IP. And keeping creative control doesn’t mean the video game company has full control—it means it is mutual creative control.”

This story originally appeared in Kidscreen‘s October/November 2023 magazine issue. 

Tune in tomorrow to learn how TeamTO and WildBrain are crafting succesful video game adaptations.