Are moviegoers burning out on Hollywood’s gaming adaptations?

There’s just one problem: Gamers do not appear to be happy about this latest run of adaptations. The “Borderlands” movie has become one of the year’s biggest flops, failing to make back the majority of its $120 million budget. And the online gaming community has thus far had a mixed reaction to the “Minecraft” movie teaser, with many gamers criticizing the trailer’s over-reliance on CGI and heavy-handed references to the original game.

“Nobody has the magic recipe for making a hit film, especially in a marketplace rocked by Covid and the WGA and SAG strikes. The challenge becomes even greater when adapting IP beloved by a passionate community with strong opinions,” said Ubisoft head of film and television content Margaret Boykin, who clarified that she was speaking generally, not pointing specifically at the “Minecraft” trailer.

“In such cases, it’s important to understand what underpins the strong connection fans have to a game — how it makes them feel, the core things they remember about their experience playing it. But it’s equally, if not more important, to tell a good story with strong characters, both to access a wider audience as well as give existing fans a reason to show up,” Boykin said.

Intended audiences

One potential cause for the widespread pushback against the “Minecraft” movie trailer is that many online commenters are adults criticizing a teaser for a movie primarily intended for children. 

“A bunch of people in Hollywood sat down and ticked a lot of boxes that you need to tick in order to get the green light to make a movie. I kind of analyzed it that way, which is probably what you’ve heard and read in lots of places,” said Adam Lieb, CEO of gaming marketing platform Gamesight, who watched the trailer with his 10-year-old children. “But my kids had a super different reaction, which was, ‘Cool, when does it come out?’”

Confusion over game adaptations’ intended audiences may have hurt the “Borderlands” film as well. The “Borderlands” video games contain a healthy amount of sexuality and violence, but the creators of the film adaptation had to tone down some of the property’s signature grittiness to achieve a PG-13 rating.

“I wish the movie had more heart and things to actually say, besides being a fun buddy adventure across Pandora,” said Mitsu, a prominent “Borderlands” Twitch streamer who made a cameo appearance in the movie. “And given the success of ‘Deadpool’ and ‘Alien,’ an R rating for movies is no longer a death sentence in terms of mass appeal.”

Higher standards

Criticisms notwithstanding, gamers’ higher standards for Hollywood’s video game adaptations signal that the genre’s success. For years, the assumption was that movie adaptations of video games were doomed to be either cheesy schlock such as the 1993 “Super Mario Bros.” movie or popcorn flicks like the “Resident Evil” series starting in the early 2000s.

But now it’s 2024, and gamers have experienced adaptations that show a genuine love for the source material — and they’re hungry for more of that good stuff.

“You don’t have one studio responsible for all of these gaming adaptations, but you do have those that really understand why the thing is special, and why fans react to it so much, and who work really hard to make sure those pieces are honored in the movie,” said Anthony Iaffaldano, vp of sales marketing and insights at Fandom. “And then you have others that may look like you took a screenshot from the game — I’m thinking of ‘Borderlands’ here — but the energy that made that so spectacular isn’t there.”

“Minecraft” is the best-selling video game of all time, selling over 300 million copies as of October 2023. It’s a far more popular property than “Borderlands,” and is arguably more famous than even “Super Mario Bros.” However, “Minecraft” has only existed since 2009, and the average “Minecraft” player is reportedly 24 years old.

When the “Minecraft” movie hits theaters, it is less likely to benefit from the multi-generational appeal that helped “Mario” bring in over $1.3 billion in ticket sales last year. The “Minecraft” film’s April 2025 release will be a litmus test of the power of newer, less nostalgia-driven video game adaptations to get butts into movie theater seats.

“For something like ‘Mario,’ they leaned into the nostalgia 100 percent, and you can see that through the marketing campaigns and the places where Mario showed up,” Iaffaldano said. “‘Minecraft’ has to play with different tricks from the bag.”