What happened: Last week, video game company Activision announced a partnership with Paramount to bring the popular franchise Call of Duty to the big screen. In what many movie fans would call a historically bad decision, it was also revealed that Activision turned down a pitch from director Steven Spielberg to direct the movie.
- Expect more announcements like this — video game IP is the new Marvel and DC, as adaptations like Minecraft and The Super Mario Bros. Movie have scored big returns at the box office in recent years.
- TV shows are also embracing the trend, with recent high-profile productions like Fallout and The Last of Us garnering both high viewership and critical acclaim.
Zoom out: Hollywood thrives on consistency and IP, and the shift to video games makes sense given the gaming industry's size and popularity, especially as superhero movies have seen significant declines in box office earnings.
What it means: While previous iterations of video game adaptations mostly failed artistically and at the box office (sorry, Prince of Persia), a new generation of movies is taking a page from the Marvel and prestige TV playbook, devoting real creative resources behind them. It may also just be that younger consumers are aging out of more millennial-focused superhero stories.—GS