Ever since Atari brought video games into the home, the industry has exploded in growth. Video games have become such a cultural phenomenon that they are now highly influential in film, television, literature and even music. In fact, many of today’s video games have extremely high production value that’s on par with major motion pictures.
And then there are video games that have been made into movies themselves. Teras Games, an online video game portal where users can play for free, is building its catalog of labels to include more classic games that went Hollywood. Here’s a sampling of a few popular game titles that made it to the big screen.
Mortal Kombat
The Mortal Kombat franchise is one of the most successful in gaming history. Unlike other videos games, it easily made the transition from small screen video game to big screen movie. The Mortal Kombat film was released in 1995, just three years after the game’s first version was created. This helped it gross over $122 million at the box office. Pretty respectable considering that’s based on mid-90s ticket prices. Currently, it ranks 4th on Box Office Mojo for video game movies. It was also the first of many video game adaptation movies for director Paul Anderson. However, the follow-up Mortal Kombat: Annihilation didn’t fare so well just a few years later.
Doom
More than a decade after the Doom video game was released and gamers everywhere went nuts for the first-person shooter format, Doom the movie was released. Unfortunately, this didn’t allow them to really capitalize on the 15-20 million people that enjoyed the game years earlier. Just like the game, the movie followed space marines that have to blast their way past alien demons and killing machines. It didn’t do so well at the box office, and even action hero superstar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson couldn’t save the film.
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. is undoubtedly one of the most well-known video game series on the planet. It was a game changer of a game to say the least. The Super Mario Bros. movie is another story. The 1993 film starred a number of great actors including John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper, but fans reacted negatively because it didn’t follow the game. According to Box Office Mojo, the movie only brought in about $30 million in theaters. It gets some leniency because it is one of the first, if not THE first, video game movie adaptation. Regardless, the movie is fun and if you don’t take it too seriously it’s worth a watch.
Pac-Man
Pac-Man was a main character in this summer’s Pixels, but did you know that Pac-Man starred in his own films? Over the last 10 years, a number of fan films have been made, including an episodic film series for Project Yellow Sphere. It was their mission to create a movie that explained the Pac-Man game by providing backstory for the big yellow guy.
The examples above prove that classic games have their place in cultural history. It also shows how powerful the video game community has become over the years. The success of a video game can be highly influential in other entertainment industries even years after the game is released. The trend is sure to continue, especially considering that many of today’s video games are well-scripted and primed to transition easily to the big screen.