Made In Hollywood-Chapter 916: The Inherent Contradiction of Game Adaptation Films

Chapter 916: Chapter 916: The Inherent Contradiction of Game Adaptation Films

"How do I see it?"

Duke shrugged. Such a situation was bound to happen sooner or later — only the timing was uncertain. Just as George Lucas seemed about to speak again, Duke reminded Sofia Coppola, "Let’s hear what Uncle Lucas has to say first."

"In the future, high-budget blockbusters will stay on the big screen for a much longer time, and ticket prices will become extremely high."

Standing beside Steven Spielberg, George Lucas shared his predictions for the Hollywood film industry with the circle of directors. "After the film industry collapses, the number of cinemas will decrease, while each theater will become larger in scale. Ticket prices will reach fifty, one hundred, or even one hundred and fifty dollars — just like today’s Broadway or football game tickets — becoming very expensive. The theatrical run of a film will last for a year, just like a Broadway show."

George Lucas continued, "Big-budget productions will be shown on large screens with high ticket prices; all other films will be shown on small screens. In fact, this is almost already the case. Lincoln and Red Tails barely entered theaters. You could say that even Steven Spielberg and George Lucas can’t get their movies into cinemas."

Both Spielberg and Lucas were among the most successful directors and producers in history, and their predictions about the future of cinema were indeed worrying.

Nearby, directors such as Duncan Jones and Ron Howard were sharing their own opinions. Although their views varied, the occasion was not suitable for debate. Duke had no intention of saying anything, so he simply turned and walked away from the group, heading toward the lounge area.

Sofia Coppola followed from behind. The two found a quiet small round table, sat down, and continued the previous discussion.

"Don’t you think Steven and George make a lot of sense?" Sofia leaned back in her chair, her voice carrying a faint nasal tone. "That situation will definitely happen in the future."

"That’s true. Major changes in the film industry are inevitable, and what George and Steven said isn’t without reason."

With no one else around, Duke folded his arms and expressed his thoughts. "However, it’s not yet time to weep for Hollywood, because plenty of movies are still making huge profits. TV dramas made for small screens are also selling well. Moreover, Hollywood’s on-demand services are making these films and shows more accessible to audiences than ever before."

As Duke had often said, in an era when movies can be watched through multiple platforms, why would audiences choose to leave the comfort of their homes and head to theaters just to contribute to box office revenue?

In this age, large-scale commercial blockbusters have become Hollywood’s mainstream — an inevitable result. Unless one doesn’t care about profits, no one can change that — not even if George Lucas and Steven Spielberg joined forces.

"Consumers have even less reason to worry," Duke tilted his head and added. "The faster the traditional film industry collapses, the sooner audiences will be able to watch whatever they want on the screens of their personal devices. They won’t need to squeeze into crowded theaters, spending a fortune on tickets just to watch the big screen from a side seat."

Sofia Coppola shrugged, knowing that their philosophies on cinema were worlds apart, and decided not to continue the debate.

Footsteps approached. Duke turned to look and saw Duncan Jones walking toward them. "Hey, Duke."

"Hello, Duncan." Duke gestured to the empty chair beside him. "Please, have a seat."

Duncan Jones didn’t stand on ceremony and sat down. Sofia looked a bit puzzled — she was Duke’s closest friend in the industry and knew that Duncan Jones and Duke weren’t particularly familiar. His direct approach clearly meant he had something on his mind.

The British director looked at Duke and got straight to the point. "My production is having some funding issues. You once mentioned being interested in investing. Do you still have that intention?"

Duke shook his head. "Not unless you can convince Blizzard and Legendary Pictures."

Back when he had recruited Daniel Wu from the World of Warcraft crew, Duke had already sent people to approach Blizzard about investing in the project. But Blizzard wasn’t foolish — they understood that as long as the film was produced to a competent standard, the massive fan base accumulated by World of Warcraft and Warcraft would almost guarantee profits. They flatly rejected Duke’s offer.

Just as Duke wouldn’t let others casually interfere in his profitable ventures, Blizzard wasn’t foolish and certainly not a charity.

Duncan Jones complained a bit about Duke poaching Daniel Wu, forcing him to find a new actor at the last minute, then left with a trace of disappointment.

He was only the director of the project — and in Hollywood, unless one was at the level of Duke or Spielberg, a director could hardly hope for much real power.

"If Duncan Jones can convince Blizzard and Legendary Pictures, I wouldn’t mind investing some money," Duke said, watching the other man walk away. "Though the project does carry considerable risk."

Sofia immediately asked, "You don’t have confidence in Blizzard’s adaptation?"

"World of Warcraft is indeed a game worth adapting, but compared to today’s mainstream sci-fi action films, the risks are much higher." Duke explained, "If we had to define one label for all video game adaptations, the word ’failure’ might be the most fitting."

Hearing this, Sofia nodded slightly. Indeed, that was the reality.

Duke shook his head. Perhaps World of Warcraft could change the grim fate of game-to-film adaptations — but as he said, the risk of failure was equally high.

With the rise of mobile games in recent years and the explosion of the IP concept, the world had entered a new era of interactive entertainment between film and gaming.

Movies and games now leveraged each other’s influence, leading to more and more successful examples of cross-media collaboration. Yet most of these successes came from games adapted from movies. Conversely, films adapted from games had repeatedly failed, suffering public criticism and ridicule.

It had to be said — game adaptation films in Hollywood were an industry that seemed full of potential yet was cursed by failure.

In 1993, a film adaptation of the popular game Super Mario — Super Mario Bros. — burst onto the scene, creating an entirely new movie genre: the game adaptation film.

Recalling the performance of Super Mario Bros. in the market back then, although it possessed the powerful advantage of a strong IP, which could attract numerous fans to the theaters, it still ended up as thunder without rain, suffering a crushing defeat in the market. Not to mention the pitiful box office—it didn’t even earn back its investment.

The main reason for this was that movies adapted from games often needed significant changes to the plot, which ultimately led to poor film quality. In the 1993 release Super Mario Bros., not only were the characters poorly represented, but the storyline after adaptation deviated too much from the game’s original plot. Players and audiences didn’t buy it, leading to a failed outcome.

It was precisely this first defeat that caused game-adapted movies to gradually fade from people’s view.

Over the past decade, some companies have tried again to adapt games into films. However, so far, there has not been a single truly successful case. Works adapted from famous games such as Prince of Persia, Silent Hill, and Tomb Raider—even under the hype of strong IP effects—only managed to earn around $200 million worldwide, barely breaking even.

In recent years, the craze for film-game interaction has grown even more intense, and the passion for game-adapted films seems to have been reignited once again, with numerous such adaptations sweeping through the industry.

Among them, the most highly anticipated are World of Warcraft and Assassin’s Creed. These can be considered national-level games, with countless fans and immense popularity among players.

But it is worth noting that in today’s booming era of film-game collaboration, as major productions once again join the fray, can game-adapted movies finally escape the curse of failure?

Frankly speaking, the risks are quite high.

"Why do game-based movies fail again and again," asked Sofia Coppola curiously, "while movies adapted into games always perform so well?"

"In a sense, game-adapted movies are a natural contradiction," Duke replied.

Unlike Sofia Coppola, Duke was not only a director but also a businessman, and he had naturally studied the kinds of films worth investing in. "Game-adapted movies are different from game versions of movies. The two have different target audiences."

Seeing that Sofia Coppola was still puzzled, Duke went on to explain in detail, "Although game-adapted movies also carry their own built-in fan effect just like films, when it comes to the influence of a game IP, compared to the vast global film market, games are like ants compared to a great tree—insignificant. The number of global film enthusiasts completely covers the number of gamers, but gamers can never cover the number of film viewers."

No one can deny that the influence and reach of popular movies far surpass those of popular games.

"What are you two talking about?" Scarlett walked over quickly, pulled out a chair, and sat down beside Duke. "You look like you’re having quite the discussion."

"About game-adapted movies," Sofia Coppola explained simply to Scarlett Johansson, then turned back to Duke and asked, "Are there any other reasons?"

"The difference in audience groups is only one aspect," Duke nodded. "There’s also another factor."

..

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