The Rise of Video Game Movies: Mario and Spider-Man Outperform Barbie and Oppenheimer in Cinema Profits for 2023

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The hazards of video game adaptations

Historically, adaptations of video games to cinema and television have rarely achieved unanimous approval. Some of us remember the movie vividly Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time which stages Jake Gyllenhaala white man with blue eyes, as the Persian prince, others still have flashbacks from the film Assassin's Creed with Michael Fassbender And Marion Cotillardand a vast majority will never be able to forget the slew of films resident Evil with Milla Jovovich (except for the third which wasn't that bad) or the countless fighting films inspired by franchises Mortal Kombat, Street Fighteror Tekken.

But it seems that adaptations are starting to improve in recent years, as we saw with the film Ratchet & Clank which summed up the license rather well and used the original voices, but also with Detective Pikachu and the two films Sonic. We were even treated to an adaptation which convinced critics to Rotten Tomatoes with Werewolves Within, based on the game of the same title. But if there's a film based on a video game license that didn't need critical acclaim to be a box office success, it's Super Mario Bros, the movieand we have proof!

Princess Peach more profitable than Barbie

According to Deadlinethe most profitable film of the year 2023 would neither be barbie neither Oppenheimerbut good Super Mario Bros, the movie ! According to their calculations, the film Universal Pictures And Illumination would have made a profit of $559 millionor almost 140 million more than barbiewhich comes second on the list with $421 million. A notable feat, given that the film Greta Gerwig generated nearly 1.5 billion in revenue at the worldwide box office, against 1.3 billion for the animated film.

But Mario is not the only video game hero to appear in this list, since we also find Miles Morales In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse in third position, with $328 million of profit. And just below the film The Eras Tour by Taylor Swift, we even find Five Nights at Freddy's with $161 million of profit. Figures which made the production of a sequel possible, while the critics were not kind to it. In other words, video game adaptations were booming in 2023, and we can only hope that future films based on video games (like The Legend of Zelda) will meet with similar success.

And in case you missed any of these films, know that you can rent most of them on Amazon Prime Video among other SVOD platforms, but be aware that subscribers myCANAL have access to barbie And Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse as part of their subscription.