{"id":17490,"date":"2022-04-07T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/?p=17490"},"modified":"2022-04-17T12:26:12","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T16:26:12","slug":"video-game-movies-sonic-hedgehog-resident-evil-mortal-kombat-box-office-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/video-game-movies-sonic-hedgehog-resident-evil-mortal-kombat-box-office-history\/","title":{"rendered":"From <em>Super Mario Bros.<\/em> to <em>Sonic<\/em>: A Box Office History of Video Game Adaptations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the last major box office hits to arrive in theaters prior to the coronavirus-fueled shutdown was Paramount\u2019s <em>Sonic the Hedgehog<\/em>, which grossed more than $146 million in the U.S. and over $300 million worldwide before its momentum was slowed by the growing outbreak. By the end of its abbreviated theatrical run, the Paramount release had managed to become the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time in the U.S. (not adjusting for inflation), marking a new high point in a cinematic sub-genre that\u2014while rarely garnering critical praise\u2014has supplied its fair share of box office success stories.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Listen to this week&#8217;s episode of The Boxoffice Podcast in advance of this weekend&#8217;s release of Paramount&#8217;s <em>Sonic the Hedgehog 2<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"Boxoffice History Episode: Video Game Adaptations\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/share.transistor.fm\/e\/c19e115e#?secret=RY6yyIVjbQ\" data-secret=\"RY6yyIVjbQ\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Like every sub-genre, of course, there have also been a number of misfires. Case in point: Disney\u2019s <em>Super Mario Bros.<\/em>, hailed as the first major video game adaptation when it debuted over Memorial Day weekend 1993. Though it was heavily hyped by the studio and given a prime early-summer release date, the $48 million-budgeted film suffered from poor word of mouth and debuted to just $8.5 million over the four-day weekend, topping out at a disappointing $20.9 million in North America. Needless to say, its weak performance did not inspire confidence.<\/p>\n<p>Though multiplexes would soon host another dud with Gramercy Pictures\u2019 big-screen adaptation of <em>Double Dragon\u2014<\/em>which opened to just $1.3 million in November 1994 and topped out at a minuscule $2.3 million in North America\u2014it was followed in December by Universal\u2019s adaptation of the wildly popular video game <em>Street Fighter<\/em>, which starred action-hero-of-the-moment Jean-Claude Van Damme. Though the $35 million-budgeted film opened to just $6.8 million in North America and finished with $33.4 million domestically, it powered its way to twice that amount overseas, boosting its worldwide gross to $99.4 million. That lopsided result was the first indication of video game adaptations\u2019 overseas potential, which would underlie later global box office successes like <em>Warcraft<\/em> and the <em>Resident Evil<\/em> franchise.<\/p>\n<p>The sub-genre really jumpstarted the following year with the release of New Line Cinema\u2019s adaptation of the hugely controversial fighting game <em>Mortal Kombat<\/em>. Despite featuring a largely unknown cast and being lambasted by critics, the adaptation satisfied the game\u2019s core fanbase and debuted with a superb $23.2 million in late August of 1995, ultimately finishing its run with $70.4 million in North American and $122.1 million globally off a reported $18 million budget. Unfortunately, that momentum didn\u2019t carry over to the far less successful 1997 sequel <em>Mortal Kombat: Annihilation<\/em> ($51.3 million worldwide off a reported $30 million budget), nor to the much-derided 1999 adaptation of the video game franchise <em>Wing Commander<\/em>, which stalled out with just $11.5 million in North America off a reported budget of $30 million.<\/p>\n<p>The following decade nonetheless saw an explosion of video game adaptations on the big screen, to mixed results. After Warner Bros.\u2019 English-dubbed release of the anime film <em>Pok\u00e9mon: The First Movie<\/em> closed out the \u201890s with a powerful North American gross north of $85.7 million and a worldwide tally of over $163.6 million off a $30 million budget, it was quickly followed by two more animated sequels, 2000\u2019s <em>Pok\u00e9mon the Movie 2000<\/em> ($43.7 million domestic, $133.9 million worldwide) and 2001\u2019s <em>Pok\u00e9mon 3: The Movie <\/em>($17 million domestic, $68.4 million worldwide), which were released to diminishing returns. The franchise picked up in U.S. theaters again with last year\u2019s live-action\/animated hybrid <em>Pok\u00e9mon Detective Pikachu<\/em>, which rose to become the highest-grossing video game adaptation ever in North America when it surged to $144.1 million in domestic receipts and a whopping $433 million worldwide, nearly tripling its reported $150 million budget. Less than a year later, <em>Sonic <\/em>would steal its box office crown, at least in North America.<\/p>\n<p>2001 would bring both the potential and pitfalls of the video game adaptation into sharp relief. That June, <em>Lara Croft: Tomb Raider<\/em> capitalized on the explosive star power of Angelina Jolie, swinging its way to $131.1 million domestically and $274.7 million worldwide off a reported $115 million budget (the 2003 sequel, <em>Lara Croft Tomb Raider:<\/em> <em>Cradle of Life, <\/em>would fall short of its success). The following month, however, saw the release of one of the most notorious flops in the canon of video game adaptations with the Sony\/Columbia-distributed <em>Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within<\/em>. Plagued by cost overruns that saw its budget balloon to a reported $137 million, the CG-animated film finished its run with a hugely disappointing $32.1 million in North America and $85.1 million globally, leading to the demise of its production company Square Pictures.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers\" width=\"798\" height=\"449\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VlCylyAKpGA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The most commercially successful and long-running video game movie franchise to date, Sony\/Screen Gems\u2019 <em>Resident Evil<\/em>, kicked off in March 2002 with the release of the first film in the series, which debuted to $17.7 million in North America and finished its domestic run with $40.1 million and $102.9 million globally, more than tripling its reported $33 million budget. The series racked up further success with a slew of sequels, including 2004\u2019s <em>Apocalypse<\/em> ($51.2 million domestic, $129.3 million worldwide), 2007\u2019s <em>Extinction <\/em>($50.6 million, $147.7 million), 2010\u2019s <em>Afterlife <\/em>($60.1 million, $300.2 million), 2012\u2019s <em>Retribution<\/em> ($42.3 million, $240.1 million), and <em>The Final Chapter<\/em>, which capped off the soon-to-be-rebooted series with $26.8 million in North America and $312.2 million worldwide, making the series a billion-dollar franchise.<\/p>\n<p>On the other side of the coin, the 2000s hosted the release of several notorious, mid-budgeted video game adaptations directed by Uwe Boll, all of which failed to gain box office traction either domestically or internationally. This list includes 2003\u2019s <em>House of the Dead<\/em> ($10.2 million domestic, $13.3 million worldwide), 2005\u2019s <em>Alone in the Dark<\/em> ($5.1 million, $12.6 million), 2006\u2019s <em>BloodRayne<\/em> ($2.4 million, $3.6 million), and 2007\u2019s <em>In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale<\/em>, which managed a paltry $4.7 million domestically and $13 million worldwide off a bloated $60 million budget.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere that decade, TriStar Pictures\u2019 2006 big-screen adaptation of the popular horror game <em>Silent Hill<\/em> became a minor hit with $46.9 million domestically and $100.6 million worldwide; 20<sup>th<\/sup> Century Fox released <em>Hitman<\/em> ($39.6 million domestic, $101.2 million worldwide) and <em>Max Payne<\/em> ($40.6 million, $87 million) to okay (if unspectacular) results; and Universal\u2019s <em>Doom\u2014<\/em>arguably the most anticipated video game adaptation of the 2000s\u2014fell far short of expectations when it grossed just $28.2 million in North America and $58 million worldwide off a reported $60 million budget, despite the presence of future action star Dwayne \u201cThe Rock\u201d Johnson in the lead role.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Resident Evil (2002) Official Trailer 1 - Milla Jovovich Movie\" width=\"798\" height=\"449\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kEutwdia8n0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The 2010s kicked off with a relative dud in Disney\u2019s <em>Prince of Persia: Sands of Time<\/em>, which even a bulked-up Jake Gyllenhaal couldn\u2019t save. Though the film managed $90.7 million in North America and $336.3 million worldwide\u2014a high number for the video game sub-genre\u2014according to some reports, its budget ballooned to $200 million, presenting the film with an all-but-insurmountable commercial hurdle.<\/p>\n<p>The overseas appeal of video game adaptations cannot be underestimated, and in the 2010s, a number of big-budget titles were salvaged by their international grosses. The most infamous example of this phenomenon is Universal\u2019s <em>Warcraft<\/em>, which was released in June 2016 to poor reviews and a polarized reception from fans of the hugely popular video game franchise. Opening to just $24.1 million in North America and finishing its run there with a paltry $47.3 million, the $160 million-budgeted film nonetheless scored with audiences overseas, particularly in China, where it finished its run with a whopping $225 million. When all receipts were tallied, the film exited multiplexes with over $439 million globally\u2014only about 10% of which came from audiences in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n<p>This asymmetrical domestic-overseas breakdown was echoed to a lesser extent by a number of other titles, including Disney\u2019s <em>Need for Speed<\/em> ($43.5 million in North America, $203.2 million worldwide in 2014); 20<sup>th<\/sup> Century Fox\u2019s <em>Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/em> ($54.6 million, $240.6 million in 2016); and Warner Bros.\u2019 <em>Tomb Raider<\/em> reboot ($58.2 million, $274.6 million) and <em>Rampage<\/em> ($101 million, $428 million), both released in 2018.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Warcraft - Official Trailer (HD)\" width=\"798\" height=\"449\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2Rxoz13Bthc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>With this weekend&#8217;s release of <em>Sonic the Hedgehog 2<\/em>, the first major family title to hit theaters since December 2021&#8217;s <em>Sing 2<\/em>, the Sonic franchise well and truly bookends the Covid-era theatrical exhibition market in North America. In between the two films, as the industry suffered from a pandemic-induced lack of content, several more video game adaptations hit theaters. The first of those was Sony&#8217;s <em>Monster Hunter<\/em>, directed by <em>Resident Evil<\/em> and <em>Mortal Kombat<\/em>&#8216;s Paul W.S. Anderson and released exclusively to theaters on December 18, 2020; all told, it topped out at $15.1 million domestic and $26.9 million international. Foregoing theatrical exclusively in favor of a day-and-date release in theaters and on HBO Max was Warner Bros.&#8217; <em>Mortal Kombat<\/em> remake, which\u2013following a path trod by most Warner Bros. movies released day-and-date in 2021\u2014fell of sharply in its second weekend in theaters, eventually grossing under $100 million worldwide. Successfully reuniting the <em>Spider-Man<\/em> team of Sony and Tom Holland was February 2022 release <em>Uncharted<\/em>, a much-delayed video game adaptation in the vein of globe-trotting adventure series like <em>Indiana Jones<\/em>. Currently seven weekends into its domestic run, its global total sits at $373.4 million, pushing it past the first <em>Sonic<\/em> as the hightest-grossing video game adaptation of all tiem.<\/p>\n<p>One interesting note: Since the sub-genre kicked off in 1993 with Super Mario Bros., only six video game movies have grossed more than $100 million at the box office: <em>Uncharted<\/em>, <em>Sonic the Hedgehog, Pok\u00e9mon Detective Pikachu, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Rampage,<\/em> and the animated <em>Angry Birds Movie<\/em>, which grossed $107.5 million domestically and $352.3 million worldwide in 2016 (its 2019 sequel, by contrast, finished with just $41.6 million and $147.7 million). Additionally, no video game movie adaptation has ever crossed the $500 million threshold worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the last major box office hits to arrive in theaters prior to the coronavirus-fueled shutdown was Paramount\u2019s Sonic the Hedgehog, which grossed more than $146 million in the U.S. and over $300 million worldwide before its momentum was slowed by the growing outbreak. By the end of its abbreviated theatrical run, the Paramount [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":24753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-04-07T18:11:27Z","apple_news_api_id":"162fcc5a-9422-4244-85a0-276069abcd8c","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-04-17T16:26:10Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQ==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AFi_MWpQiQkSFoCdgaavNjA","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3290],"tags":[1771,1215,3499,3504,3501,2440,3498,3505,3033,3502,3500,1971,3503,1155],"class_list":["post-17490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-box-office-archives","tag-angry-birds","tag-assassins-creed","tag-doom","tag-final-fantasy","tag-mortal-kombat","tag-pokemon-detective-pikachu","tag-resident-evil","tag-silent-hill","tag-sonic-the-hedgehog","tag-street-fighter","tag-super-mario-bros","tag-tomb-raider","tag-video-game-adaptations","tag-warcraft"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boxofficepro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}