Film adaptations of video games are breaking records while former box office star “Marvel” continues to sink. There are good reasons for this, believes MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski.
We gamers have known for a long time that video games are more than just wildly hitting a few buttons. This is now being recognized in the mainstream, thanks in part to strong film adaptations:
- The Last of Us is a mega-success for the streaming service HBO. Only House of the Dragon had a more successful launch, making The Last of Us the most successful series of the year
- The Super Mario Bros. film broke several records, including being the world’s highest-grossing animated film
- Arcane, the series based on League of Legends, is considered one of the best series of all time and still holds a strong 8.9 on IMDb (May 21, 2023)
At Marvel, the headlines of recent months read differently.
Since Avengers: Endgame (2019), a downward trend has emerged for Marvel. This was last evident with Ant-Man 3: Compared to its opening weekend, revenue dropped by 69.7 percent, surpassing Marvel films’ previous negative record in this category.
But not only Marvel’s heroes are suffering at the box office. Black Adam and Shazam 2 also suffered catastrophic losses for DC.
People are already talking about “superhero fatigue,” a weariness and saturation with the superhero genre.
If only it were that easy.
The third installment of Guardians of the Galaxy has shown that it is still possible to be successful with superheroes. My social media is flooded with voices crying and laughing over the end of the Guardians trilogy, so moved that they want to shout it out to the world. The positive word-of-mouth is noticeable at the box office.
The Guardians surpassed the previous Ant-Man film’s earnings significantly on their second weekend and only experienced a 49 percent drop in weekend revenue, which is a particularly good result compared to other MCU films.
What do video game adaptations achieve that our superheroes often fail to do?
Marvel is becoming increasingly pale and insignificant
In 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe made its debut with Tony Stark and Iron Man. The critics rave: It is visually stunning, funny, action-packed, yet socially critical with characters that are endearing.
Over the years, a vast universe developed that is divided into phases. Marvel stands out. The characters have deep backstories, there are high budgets, and a strong use of CGI to bring fantastic elements to the screen.
From stories for comic book nerds come bombastic films with heroes that every child should soon know – girls, boys, and everyone in between. Eventually, the term for the successful “Marvel formula” is established:
Sympathetic heroes battle villains who threaten the world or the universe. There are plenty of jokes, perhaps a heroic death and an impressive CGI fight scene. The day is saved.
At some point, one gets the feeling that they have seen it all before. The successful Marvel formula suddenly gets in its own way. Nothing surprises anymore.
Boredom spreads in the cinema. One superhero blockbuster after another is pumped out. Despite high budgets, the CGI appears cheaper. The sympathetic characters fade. There is no longer any tension. Every significant death is reversed by an object or through a parallel universe. Sacrifices become meaningless.
At some point, it’s more important which Easter egg is hidden in which film and who has a cameo somewhere. It’s exhausting to follow the entire story. The films and series reference each other, and if one doesn’t see everything, they can miss something crucial for the new story.
All of this is exhausting.
Video games are finally being taken seriously
Just like comic books, video games were reserved for nerds and kids living in basements. No one really took it seriously when a small plumber hops from castle to castle to rescue a princess from the clutches of a turtle while munching on mushrooms.
Video games have evolved over the years, often bypassing the mainstream. While we cried with Ellie and Joel from The Last of Us on the PlayStation 3 over 10 years ago, many non-gamers caught up with it on television in 2023. They too cry when confronted with a devastated world that still holds love and beauty.
Before Arcane, there were few bright spots in video game adaptations that did justice to their originals. There were low budgets, and adaptations like Resident Evil, Mortal Kombat, or the infamous first Super Mario Bros. from 1989 felt like no one had seriously engaged with the games and fans.
With Arcane, the turning point arrives. There have also been good to great adaptations before, like Castlevania or Detective Pikachu, but Arcane surprised and exceeded all expectations. The series has a pretty high production value, and the story is told as dark and serious as in Game of Thrones. Characters are put in difficult moral decisions that have consequences.
I believe that the success of the new video game adaptations is rooted in this: They trust their audience again.
As the source material and its stories are finally being taken seriously by the film industry, the depth translates to the films and series themselves. When someone dies, the character can stay dead, so that death has meaning. It can be emotionally difficult, allowing the story to have an impact on us and impress us sustainably.
Even in the child-friendly Super Mario Bros., they decided to give Bowser stalker-like macho traits – which earned him criticism for toxic turtle-like behavior. But that rubs some people the wrong way, it’s bold, and it stays in the mind.
The machinery of game adaptations has only just begun. Right after the credits of the Mario film, it became clear that this is far from the end. A Zelda film is more than likely. A sequel to The Last of Us for HBO is already confirmed.
The head of Illumination Entertainment, the studio behind the new Super Mario Bros., is now on the board of Nintendo. There couldn’t be a bigger sign of where the journey is heading. Nintendo is now a film studio.
We will hear about many more records here, just like we once did with Marvel.
I really hope that Marvel can find its way again. Because even if I show a lot of cynicism here, I love many characters from this universe and wish them a better future.
Director and producer James Gunn has proven with his Guardians of the Galaxy that it’s not about superhero fatigue.
