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Discussion What video game IP besides Mario could make for a billion dollar movie?

looking at the way cape movies went... well, if video game movies take off, probably more IPs than you'd expect have a chance at it tbh

can't stress enough that iron man was practically a complete nobody in 2008 compared to now, and yet iron man 3 hit that billion dollar mark
 
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HeyItsPulse said:
I've always believed that a Halo movie in 2007, coinciding with the release of 3 would have become one of the biggest movies of all time.

Microsoft fumbled that franchise HARD when it came to expanding beyond games.
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Maybe domestically. Xbox has virtually no penetration in a lot of international markets, even back in the 360 days.
 
Mekanos said:
Maybe domestically. Xbox has virtually no penetration in a lot of international markets, even back in the 360 days.
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I think a Halo film could penetrate the markets Xbox as a console couldn't. It doesn't matter though, Microsoft never took the shot with it, so we'll never know how it would have gone.
 
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Pokemon absolutely could, it just has to be done correctly

I say don't even bother with human characters, do an animated film with a setting like Mystery Dungeon. Talking animals on an adventure, but Pokemon. You'd think that'd be a slam dunk, at least with kids.
 
Mekanos said:
I think the issue with Zelda is unlike Mario it's had a lot of peaks and valleys in its popularity over the years. It's never been unpopular, per se, but it feels more like it has a big zeitgeist moment every decade (LOZ, OOT, TP, BOTW), and then surrounding games that are successful but less iconic and recognizable. Regardless, 1 billion or otherwise, we can be assured they're working on something Zelda right now after the Mario movie's success.
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I feel like, if they really wanted to, Zelda is the kind of thing that could more than carry a "Lord of the Rings" style anthology film series. It's the only way I could see Zelda working, because one 90-120 minute feature really isn't enough for Hyrule and its characters to breathe, let alone tell a more in-depth story, too.

The only problem is if I'm not sure if Hollywood somehow needs more convincing that animated media could do that and would try to insist on live action + CG.
 
TreIII said:
I feel like, if they really wanted to, Zelda is the kind of thing that could more than carry a "Lord of the Rings" style anthology film series. It's the only way I could see Zelda working, because one 90-120 minute feature really isn't enough for Hyrule and its characters to breathe, let alone tell a more in-depth story, too.

The only problem is if I'm not sure if Hollywood somehow needs more convincing that animated media could do that and would try to insist on live action + CG.
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I think the most likely route is they adapt Zelda to live-action and bill it as their big prestige live action TV series, especially after the success of TLOU on HBO.
 
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An IP that I'd think would be interesting to see made into a movie would be Kirby. Kirby is a weird franchise that can punch above its sales figures because it's a merchandising hit. Kirby is this weird multi-generational appeal that could translate to a successful movie. Not sure if it hit a billion but it'd probably do better than most would expect.
 
HeyItsPulse said:
I've always believed that a Halo movie in 2007, coinciding with the release of 3 would have become one of the biggest movies of all time.

Microsoft fumbled that franchise HARD when it came to expanding beyond games.
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they also fumbled hard when it came to the games too lol
 
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If the Mario movie ends up continuing to surpass expectations and going much further past 1 billion than expected, then I think the floor for other Nintendo IP actually is higher than I initially thought and could see competent adaptations cross a billion as well.
 
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We live in a world where Marvel made a film about a purple alien gathering a load of magic space gems who was foiled by a tech bro, a norse god, the king of a secret hi-tech African nation and a talking space racoon...and made it one of the biggest films of all time. I think even the most optimistic Marvel fanboy couldn't have dreamed back in 2008 that in ten years time they'd not only adapt the Infinity Saga, but they'd witness it become the highest grossing film of all time.

I don't think anyone can really accurately predict that it's impossible for other Nintendo properties to achieve success similar to Mario's at the box office. Provided they are handled with care and are given quality adaptiations they could be very successful indeed.

I would have to imagine Universal are looking to fast track Zelda and maybe DK, in addition to a second Mario movie. But I wouldn't sleep on Splatoon. It contains all the elements that could lead to a successful kids film; catchy pop tunes, quotable catchphrases and themes about 'being cool'.
 
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Zelda
Donkey Kong
Kirby would do gangbusters
Pokémon if it's done right
Splatoon
Luigis Mansion
Even Kid Icarus, if they went with the smash crossover aspect.
 
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Doing a proper Pokémon Picture is actually quite hard if you think about it. There is already so much video content out there. Just doing another adaptation of the first anime wouldn‘t be that successful I think.

That’s why I actually appreciate that they went in a different direction with Detective Pikachu. But it was probably too different from the main games for enough people to actually care, especially it being live action in a kinda weird style and on the other hand they played it to save to make an actual interesting movie. Still I‘m interested how well the rumored sequel would work at the box office. To be fair I believe the first movie would have been more successful if the release date wouldn’t had been so close to Avengers Endgame.

But to have their Mario Movie Moment maybe they would really need to do a simple retelling of what happens in actual Pokémon Games. Kid arrives in Pokémon Region, going on a big journey to catch Pokémon and fight in arenas while there is some low key subplot about some evil guy or force. This way you could focus on references, music and stuff.
 
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There are plenty of ideas for Pokemon films you could gain from the source material and probably turn into a successful film. You could do a Pokemon Ranger film, or a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon film with kids turning into Pokemon, or something like Legends Arceus set in the past as an origin story.

Which is why it was so weird they decided on the first attempt to do a Detective Pikachu film.
 
Ideally Mario will have an audience building effect for the Nintendo + Illumination pairing that people will show up decently enough for the less popular IP. If for example Mario achieves a 1.2b box office run, then retaining even 50% of that audience for a DK or Zelda movie would get you to 600m which is far higher than every other gaming adaptation pre-Mario has done.
 
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Galgavias said:
There are plenty of ideas for Pokemon films you could gain from the source material and probably turn into a successful film. You could do a Pokemon Ranger film, or a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon film with kids turning into Pokemon, or something like Legends Arceus set in the past as an origin story.

Which is why it was so weird they decided on the first attempt to do a Detective Pikachu film.
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To get this all ages audience the Mario Movie has, I feel like the source material needs to be as straight forward as possible, referencing the most played Pokémon games. I mean I can see how you can tell a great story in a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Film, but I don‘t think that it would be much more successful than Detective Pikachu.
 
Mekanos said:
If Mario does a billion I would guess DK does about half of that. Avengers did 1.5 billion and Winter Soldier did around 700. Being a spin-off of a super popular movie will help but it has to build itself as its own brand too. If a new DK game comes out between now and the movie though that might change the calculus.
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I really don't see DK doing 500m anymore. In my experience DK is simply not a character and brand that kids talk about that much compared to in 90s. If Detective Pikachu and Sonic weren't able to get that high, I doubt DK could. Barring a new game maybe 300-400ish if Nintendo really push it.
 
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lexony said:
To get this all ages audience the Mario Movie has, I feel like the source material needs to be as straight forward as possible, referencing the most played Pokémon games. I mean I can see how you can tell a great story in a Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Film, but I don‘t think that it would be much more successful than Detective Pikachu.
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You uh, know that means a Pokémon go movie, right? That's still at like, 80 million monthly players.
 
Linkstrikesback said:
You uh, know that means a Pokémon go movie, right? That's still at like, 80 million monthly players.
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Wasn’t thinking about that but I mean yeah. I feel like a Pokémon Movie needs some sort of catching, fighting and traveling.
 
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