Turning popular game franchise isn’t a new phenomenon, but has been relevant since the 90s. There have been scores of games that have been turned into movies, and here we look at the best of the lot.
Mortal Kombat
The game was first developed by a Chicago-based company known as Midway Games in 1992. It garnered a huge fan base pretty quickly, mainly due to the violence and gore it offered. The game was converted into two mainstream Hollywood movies: Mortal Kombat which was released in 1995 and Mortal Kombat Annihilation which was released in 1997. Both the movies weren’t as hit as the game because they were more family-friend than any gamer wanted it to be. Although the first movie was a commercial success, garnering 100 million plus in revenues in the box office, the second one — not so much. Another movie is said to be in the pipeline and will be released under the Warner Bros. banner, who had purchased Midway Games after they filed for bankruptcy.
Resident Evil
The game, which was first released in 1996 under the Capcom banner. The game was first made into a movie in 2002, and since then there has been a total of six releases under the Resident Evil banner, starring Milla Jovovich. The movies do not follow the game’s plot, but features characters from the game. It is widely dubbed as the most successful movie that has been inspired by a video game. The game itself has been released in more than 20 volumes, with the latest one released in 2016 and the upcoming title will be released in early 2017.
Tomb Raider
Created by a British company known as Core Design, the game was first launched in 1996 on PC, and in 1997 on Playstation and Sega Saturn Consoles. Between 2001 and 2007, the game was popularly known as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Since its release, there have been 16 titles released of the game. The game was made into a movie in 2001, carrying the same name as the game and with famed actress Angelina Jolie playing the lead — Lara Croft. A sequel of the movie was released in 2003, known as The Cradle of Life. There have been ongoing talks of another movie loosely based on the 2013 game in which Lara Croft searches for her father.
Max Payne
A popular third-person shooter game since its release in 2001, Max Payne — the game — has had three titles released under its banner since. The second and third instalments of the game came in 2003 and 2012. While the first two instalments were made by Finland-based Remedy Entertainment, the third game (also the last release) was published by Rockstar Games — famous for its GTA series. The movie, which was based on the video game, was released in 2008 and carried the same name as the video game, starring Mark Wahlberg as the protagonist. Although the movie received much criticism for the lack of similarity with the video game, it turned out to be a box-office success.
Hitman
A stealth-based shooting video game, Hitman, gained much praise from the gaming community for being one of a kind shooter game. Developed by IO Interactive and published first in 2000 by Eidos Interactive, the game was a rage amongst the community and was named Hitman: Codename 47. There has been a total of 9 gaming titles since its initial release; the latest one was released in 2016. a The game has been made into two movies: Hitman starring Timothy Olyphant in 2007 and Hitman: Agent 47 starring Rupert Friend in 2015. The first movie was a commercial success, though it received criticism due to a significant difference in Agent 47s back story. The second movie didn’t do any better than the first and didn’t fair as well as the first one in the box office revenues too.
Prince of Persia
Although the first game was released in 1989, it gained massive popularity after the Sand of Time trilogy was released, which included The Sands of Time, Warrior Within and Two Thrones, in 2003, 2004 and 2005, respectively. Given its massive popularity among gamers, it was made into a film titled Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as the main protagonist and also Gemma Arterton and Ben Kingsley, released in 2010. The movie was a box office hit and overtook Lara Croft: Tomb Raider as the highest grossing movie which was adapted from a video game. This record was again broken by our next selection.
Warcraft
Developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, the first instalment of the game was released in 1994 and gained widespread popularity soon after that. A total of five titles have been released of the game till date, each receiving a warmer response than the previous. While the first three titles are real-time strategy games, the fourth and fifth titles have moved to the role-playing genre where each player controls a character in a virtual world and players also interact with one another. The game was immortalised into a movie which was released in 2016 and took the box office by storm, becoming the highest grossing movie ever, based on a video game. The movie was released ten years after Legendary Pictures and Blizzard Entertainment announced their partnership to release a movie based on the video game.
Assassin’s Creed (Special Mention)
I know, we were going to list out seven, but simply couldn’t leave this one out because the game was so awesome and here’s hoping the movie is too. Developed by Ubisoft, the game has had more than 20 titles to its name on multiple platforms and a movie based on the highly rated action-adventure series, starring Michael Fassbender, is slated to release in December 2016 — yeah, this month. Brace yourselves! The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.
