What's driving the resurgence of gaming movies?

It’s fair to say that movies, except for a small minority, are strongly influenced by other art forms and genres. You can scroll down a list of the top 50 films on any site, and I guarantee you that at least half of them will have been based on a book or play or are some form of literary adaptation.

Inspiration is vital in the arts, and as much as authors or creatives would love to have a stream of consciousness flowing through them, this simply isn’t how the real world operates. That's why finding the right environment or outlet, such as exploring an in-depth Seven casino review, can help spark fresh ideas and creativity, offering a new perspective for those seeking inspiration in unexpected places.

For a movie to succeed or for a genre to experience a resurgence or newfound fame, it takes much more than throwing a dart at the New York Times bestsellers from the previous year and adapting them into a film, even though it does feel as though some movie production companies adopt this strategy from time to time.

Sometimes, one of the main driving forces behind a resurgence of a genre or character is the quality of the director and how much they put themselves into the limelight. The multi-decade filmography of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro is a great example of an elite director teaming up with an elite actor. Ultimately, they benefit each other and ensure the movie is of the best quality.

Scorsese even dabbled in gaming movies, when he directed Casino back in 1995. Although gaming movies haven’t strayed into the world of gambling just yet, the emergence of digital casino gaming and the fact that a host of gambling games have experienced a resurgence could mean another Ocean’s Eleven, casino heist-style movie on the cards. Hopefully, there will be no sequel this time around, though.

Perhaps the fact that most casino gaming now channels itself through digital platforms means that whether you’re looking for a casino guide or an insight into what a new gambling platform has to offer, there doesn’t feel like a film in there – at least not in the near future.

Christopher Nolan's films fit into this category, and throughout the 2010s, he was the main director of world cinema. Following a string of unbelievably successful science-fiction movies, the resurgence of science-fiction movies in the 2010s can be directly attributed to several of his landmark titles. While gaming movies undeniably undergo a golden period of resurgence, the director's impact is not a factor here.

Film production companies pay close attention to rising trends, whether they appear on social media or explode into pop culture. Keeping their fingers on the pulse has allowed many production companies to churn out ideas that capture the energy and excitement that revolves around a specific idea. This is what has happened with gaming movies, particularly during this decade thus far.

The rise of Mafia films in the 1970s was predated by best-selling novels in the preceding decade. This, of course, includes The Godfather. Despite Mario Puzo admitting that he’d never met a gangster before penning his magnum opus, it’s renowned for its authenticity and is littered with memorable scenes and lines that many movie fans can quote at the drop of a hat.

Other top-selling films from the last decade have inspiration rooted in literature:

● Parasite is based on a play.

● Wolf of Wall Street is based on a book.

● Oppenheimer was based on the best-selling biography.

Since the late 1990s, home console video gaming has become an industry worth tens of billions of dollars per year, so the underlying metrics have clearly shown there’s enormous potential in video gaming movies – it wasn’t just a random punt in the dark.

Professional video gaming and other subsidiary markets that have branched off from its success have also become multibillion-dollar markets in their own right. So, Hollywood quickly realized that the idea of making films based on video games had a good chance of yielding a return.

Although the success of gaming may have driven the initial idea, the seismic success and ingenuity of the films themselves have helped spur the continued success of the genre. The cultural impact and success of TV shows like The Last of Us were another clear indicator that if written and directed properly, video game adaptations on the big screen could prove to be a big hit. Some of the landmark movies in this resurging genre include:

● The Resident Evil franchise – grossed over $1.2 billion at the box office.

● Gran Turismo – a box office success.

● The Super Mario Bros. Movie – a billion-dollar success, with a sequel touted for 2026.

Super Mario Bros and Gran Turismo show that it’s not only games with a visceral, well-written, structured cast of characters that can succeed at the box office.

So, what’s behind the resurgence of gaming movies? It’s a combination of everything we’ve touched on today. The initial foundation of highly popular video games helped movie production companies sit up and take notice. Those movies that have been able to adapt and have proved to be box office hits have fueled the idea that there’s still a lot more juice to be squeezed out of this genre.

It’s too early to say whether gaming movies have the potential to battle some of the more revered and well-established Hollywood themes and keep their proverbial seat at the table. We’ve witnessed many popular fads rise to the top of the industry, disappear and either revive themselves a few years down the line or completely die out; there is a cyclical nature to it.

Although this wasn’t the first attempt to make a Mario film – the first in 1993 was considered a flop – the explosion in the number of people playing video games and the quality of animated movies has opened up an avenue for these games to become viable movie ideas with a much better chance of success on the big screen.

We’d expect this resurgence to extend to the latter part of the 2020s; The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 will be a good measuring stick of where the genre is in a couple of years from now.