Movies are often adapted from stories, poems, memoirs, books and more. However, there are also plenty of video games that got their own movie adaptations, with more on the way. In fact, in December 2022, Hideo Kojima announced a film adaptation of his video game, Death Stranding. More and more, the world of movies and video games has become intertwined, but there’s still some way to go.
A lot of video game adaptations are infamous for being pretty bad, honestly. Still, there are some good ones in the sea of all those movies. Here are ten movies that were based on video games!
10. Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider had many movie adaptations, but we’re going to be focusing on the 2018 version here. Based on the original hit video game series, Tomb Raider, this movie tells the story of Lara Croft. An adventurous person, Croft decides to go find her missing father and ends up at the crossroads of the unleashing of a powerful ancient demon.
Although the movie wasn’t all that well-received, it honestly wasn’t bad. It provided entertainment, action, and an exciting story.
Tomb Raider had a previous adaptation starring Angelina Jolie too, by the way. The Jolie movie made about $274.4 million at the box office on a budget of $94-$115 million.
9. Monster Hunter
Monster Hunter got a film adaptation back in 2020 and is based off of the Monster Hunter video game franchise. The movie was written, directed and produced by Paul W. S. Anderson, who is known for making movie adaptations of video games.
The movie stars Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and a group of loyal soldiers as they fight against powerful monsters for survival. It was made with a budget of $60 million. However, it only made $44.5 million in the box office. It was praised for its action, visuals, and music, but critics didn’t seem to enjoy Jovovich’s performance much nor the directing and editing.
But its visual effects were enough to give it a bit of a boost and it was nominated at the 19th Visual Effects Society Awards.
8. Resident Evil
It’s Milla Jovovich again, but this time, in Resident Evil. Arguably one of the most popular horror video game franchises ever made, Resident Evil had to get its own movie adaptation. In 2002, Paul W. S. Anderson directed and produced Resident Evil, but it was received with lackluster responses.
The movie starred Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez as leaders of a commando team that must break into “the hive,” a vast underground genetics laboratory by the Umbrella Corporation. A deadly virus has been unleashed at the lab and is threatening to overrun the Earth.
Fans didn’t hate it too much, but it’s certainly no cinematic masterpiece.
7. Silent Hill
Oh yeah, more horror games to movies to go through! This time, Silent Hill. Also one of the most famous video game franchises to ever grace this Earth, Silent Hill got a movie adaptation in 2006. With a budget of $50 million, the movie went on to make $100.6 million at the box office.
Silent Hill was directed by Christopher Gains and told the story of a woman named Rose who decides to take her dying daughter to a faith healer. On the way there, they accidentally drive through a reality portal into Silent Hill and are met by the darkness of the town. Oh and Pyramid Head is in it and rips someone’s skin off. Enjoy.
Silent Hill got a sequel as well called Silent Hill: Revelations, but literally nobody liked that one.
6. Doom
Rip and tear until it’s done! Yeah, Doom did have a movie adaptation way back in 2005. It wasn’t really that successful or anything, but it exists out there.
Doom is one of the most iconic first-person shooter games to ever be developed and is synonymous with being a pioneer for the genre. The games revolve around Doomguy or Doom Slayer (depends on which Doom we’re talking about here) and his fight against Hell.
The 2005 film stars Dwayne Johnson as Sarge and Karl Urban (The Boys) as Reaper alongside other Marines sent to a facility on Mars for a rescue mission. However, they end up facing off against demonic creatures.
Doom did get another film adaptation called Doom: Annihilation back in 2019, but that one went straight to video. And yeah, it wasn’t really that popular unfortunately.
5. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Prince of Persia is a very popular name in the video game world, and its movie is actually popular. It did make about $336.4 million at the box office in 2010 and is available to watch on Disney+. It also stars Jake Gyllenhaal, in case you needed more convincing.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time tells the story of Dastan, the adopted son of Persia’s king, who leads an attack on a city called Alamut. This city is next to the Sands of Time, which gives people the power to turn back time.
Dastan gets a hold of a dagger that grants him access to the Sands. However, he’s been accused of killing his father and runs away with Alamut princess Tamina. The two must protect the ancient treasure from evil and figure out who killed the king.
Many really liked it, but others criticized it for its screenplay and whitewashing of the cast. Still, it was the highest grossing video game movie adaptation until 2016 when Warcraft surpassed it.
4. Assassin’s Creed
We work in the dark to serve the light, evidently, because this movie really liked darkening its picture a lot. Jokes aside, Assassin’s Creed did get a movie adaptation back in 2016 with Michael Fassbender as the main character and assassin ancestor.
Although Assassin’s Creed had an interesting setting in the Spanish Inquisition and an interesting assassin with Aguilar, it didn’t really do itself any favors by throwing a lot of Assassin’s Creed lore at an unknowing audience. Coupled with some inaccuracies and lackluster acting and directing, it just wasn’t that liked.
It was going to get a sequel, but Disney scrapped the plans after it acquired 21st Century Fox in 2019. The movie underperformed in the box office. It had a budget of $125 million but only got $240 million. I mean, that’s a pretty high number compared to some of these other movies, but yeah, Disney didn’t like that.
It did feature an impressive stunt though: Fassbender’s stunt double Damian Walters actually performed a 125-foot freefall in order to make the leap of faith more real. It’s actually insane, watch it below (if you just want to see it happen, skip to around 1:53):
3. Mortal Kombat
Mortal Kombat did get two movie adaptations, one in 1995 and one in 2021. In its time, the 1995 version was pretty popular. It didn’t age well, like at all, but it was popular enough. The 2021 version did gross $84.4 million at the box office, but it wasn’t really that well-received by critics.
For the most part, it looks like it did understand its source material really well, but the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie seemed to have a lot of weak points. Some critics didn’t like the main character, others felt the action was lackluster–either way, it looks like Mortal Kombat is cursed to having bad adaptations.
At least the games are fun.
2. Warcraft
In 2016, World of Warcraft would get a video game adaptation called Warcraft. Based off of the insanely popular MMO, Warcraft had a budget of $160 million and would end up grossing an insane number at the global box office: $439 million. It’s the highest-grossing video game movie adaptation of all time. It still didn’t meet the break-even point of $500 million, however.
It got a lot of negative reviews and underperformed a lot in the United States, but China carried Warcraft to victory. The movie grossed $47.4 million in the US and $225.5 million in China.
Warcraft followed the story of an orc shaman named Gul’dan who wants to escape his dying world and uses dark magic to open a portal to the human realm of Azeroth. He works alongside Blackhand to fight against an army called the Horde that is threatening the survival of the orcs.
People didn’t seem to hate it too much, but yeah, it wasn’t a cinematic masterpiece either.
1. Sonic the Hedgehog
Finally, let’s talk about Sonic. Back in 2020, Sonic the Hedgehog would get a live-action movie adaptation and became the subject of many, many, many memes. Why? Well, the animators tried to make Sonic look too realistic and it…it wasn’t a good move. They got bullied by the internet so hard that they delayed the film, reanimated the blue guy, and made it look much nicer.
With Jim Carrey and other big names, the movie went on to gross $320 million in the box officed. It was one of the highest-grossing movies of 2020 and the highest-grossing superhero movie of 2020, beating Marvel. That’s a big deal.
The movie tells the story of Sonic, who ends up in the human world after his people are attacked. He meets Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) and eventually befriends him. He must also face off against Doctor Eggman (Jim Carrey) for survival.
The movie wasn’t insanely original in terms of plot, but it was a fun watch and great for families. It also had a really popular sequel too.
Which one of these movies is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below. Plus, tell us if there are any other video game adaptations you enjoyed and why.
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Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
