It’s no secret that movie theaters have been suffering for several years now. It’s easy to trace this fracture in the industry back to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the root of this ongoing problem runs much deeper. This year’s summer box office was historically low, and hopes for a recovery are transitioning into discussions of the “new normal.”

With the rise of streaming and the erosion of theatrical exclusivity windows, there just isn’t the same incentive to see things in cinemas – and the industry in general is grappling with the variety of things now vying for people’s attention, from live events to video games to YouTube videos. Over recent years, the number of adults going to theaters to watch new releases has fallen dramatically.

Additionally, many of Hollywood’s most reliable movie franchises are reaching the point where audiences are losing interest – and we’re not seeing enough new franchises coming to replace them. The future of cinema has to be somewhere else.

That somewhere else – perhaps surprisingly – is video game adaptations.

Young Audiences Are Saving Theaters

All hope is not yet lost for the future of theatrical moviegoing. Even if the $1 billion worldwide threshold that became the gold standard has been increasingly difficult to crack, blockbuster hits aren’t gone. But looking at the charts of highest-grossing movies of the 2020s, what we’re rarely seeing at that scale is anything made for adults. Family films have dominated these charts for the entirety of this decade.

This year alone, the only American movie to gross over $1 billion was Lilo & Sтιтch, a live-action remake of an existing Disney property. Last year, it was Inside Out 2. The year before that, Barbie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie came out on top. There’s a clear correlation here, and it’s not going away any time soon.

Family movies have always done well at the box office, primarily because the age ratings mean that anybody can watch them. But the decrease in older adults visiting theaters has made the discrepancy even more obvious. For those who can simply wait two months and watch a film at home, it’s much easier to skip cinema visits.

However, younger audiences are still making the most of the theatrical experience. As we saw with A Minecraft Movie earlier this year, kids movies aren’t just movies. They’re catchy songs, viral moments, and ultimately, memes. This was all woven into A Minecraft Movie‘s marketing, and it was an immense success.

Video Game Movies Are Adapting To This Trend

Previously, studios like Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks essentially held a monopoly on animated movies. Before 2023, only ten animated movies had ever grossed more than $1 billion at the box office; eight of them had been released by Disney and/or Pixar. But as soon as The Super Mario Bros. Movie came along, it sH๏τ into the third position.

This was the beginning of a seismic shift for video game adaptations, which had notoriously struggled to find an audience before this point. There weren’t many good video game movies at all before 2023. Projects like Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil had consistently given them a bad critical reputation, but Super Mario made one important change.

Instead of taking itself too seriously, The Super Mario Bros. Movie allowed itself to be silly and lighthearted, directing itself towards younger audiences and thriving as a result. The film didn’t try and be grounded or mature like the 1993 version, but simply recognized that older audiences just aren’t that interested in video game movies.

One of the biggest drawbacks of the video game movie subgenre is that they’re never as good as the games themselves. So why would older audiences go and see another underwhelming Resident Evil movie when they can just play the games at home? But with children’s movies, it’s not always about the quality, but the experience.

It’s easy to look at things like the “sing-along meme-along” Minecraft Movie screenings with a cynical eye, but ultimately, it’s this connection to movies as something communal and interactive that keeps audiences coming back for more. The more movies aimed at them they attend, the more they come to love the theatrical experience.

Movies are losing valuable audience time to playing video games, especially among young people. Adapting them is one way to steal back some of that lost ground.

What This Means For The Future Of Video Game Movies

In the larger scope of the movie industry, this is a fairly recent trend, but we’re already seeing how it’s rippling out and continuing to impact audiences. Sequels to The Super Mario Bros. Movie and A Minecraft Movie are already on the way, and there’s no reason to believe they’ll be any less successful than the originals.

In fact, it seems like these franchises will only get more popular as they expand. With such a vast array of source material to pull from (Minecraft is literally endless), there are no boundaries to the stories that can be told.

And with so many of Hollywood’s previous box office winners bringing their franchises to an end, there’s a clear gap in the market for video game adaptations to take advantage of. If older audiences are stepping away from theaters, it only makes sense for younger audiences to keep them alive. And if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.