Adapting Gaming IP for Film & TV: How to Navigate the Pitfalls
Warner Bros.’ “A Minecraft Movie” remains the latest gaming craze to successfully make it in Hollywood, having just passed $900 million globally at the box office.
But while it’s the second-best gaming adaptation ever at the box office, having transcended poor critical reception in the process, bringing gaming IP to film and TV is no easy task.
At April’s LA Games Conference, one of the producers behind Universal’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s” outlined just how complex translating successful IP across mediums can be.
“It’s really about selectively seeding content into the marketplace, keeping content coming at a cadence that isn’t abusive but that’s engaging, and then letting the fans do the rest,” said Russell Binder, president and founding partner of licensing company Striker Entertainment, during a panel I moderated.
“Five Nights” started in 2014 as a small horror game from developer Scott Cawthon, who still owns the IP more than a decade later.
Per Binder, the process of first licensing “Five Nights” took two to three years, followed by another six between film producer Jason Blum getting involved and the 2023 debut of the first film, which will see a sequel in theaters this December. Well over a dozen games were released throughout this timeframe, and the 11th main installment, “Secret of the Mimic” is due June 13.
Per Binder, the overall IP was valued close to $2 billion as a consumer products business before crossing over to film.
“We’ve been on [‘Five Nights’] now for about 10 years, and when we started we really focused on the consumer products execution of that property,” he said. “What we found very quickly was that as popular as the game was, what was much more popular was the virality of people on YouTube and on social platforms playing with the IP, exploiting the jump scares and building a community.”
While “Five Nights” doesn’t rank among the top 10 film adaptations of gaming IP, its modest $20 million budget made its nearly $300 million global box office haul highly profitable, half of which came from domestic theaters — even with a day-and-date release on Peacock.
While HBO’s “The Last of Us” and Amazon’s “Fallout” are the best examples of gaming IP translating successfully to TV, live-action takes on high-fidelity games are expensive to make.
The next two years of gaming adaptations will be heavy on the film side, with IP including “Angry Birds” and “Resident Evil” returning to theaters. The latter is being rebooted for a second time by Sony after 2021’s “Welcome to Raccoon City” failed to capture the audience that showed up for six Milla Jovovich-led films before then. Likewise, 2019’s “Angry Birds 2” made less than half as much as the first take on the mobile game in 2016.
“Part of it is people age out,” said Binder, who added there are also going to be “misinterpretations of the IP for filmmakers.” April’s “Until Dawn” is an example of the latter and is struggling to get to $50 million globally, or even $20 million domestically.
While the R-rated horror flick was made cheaply enough to dodge a loss at Sony, the game’s writers weren’t credited, much to their dismay.
That’s in stark contrast to adaptations such as “The Last of Us,” “Fallout” and 2023’s “Mario,” which closely involved the IP’s originators.
However, Binder reminded there can be great difficulty the other way around.
“There’s going to be oversteps by developers who want to have so much control that they don’t always know the best way to adapt the project into a film or television show,” he said.
Binder wasn’t referring to any particular example, though Lionsgate’s “Borderlands” in 2024 springs to mind. Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford was in talks with producer Avi Arad for more than a decade to adapt it, only for the film to bomb hard and gross less than a third of its budget, which ballooned to more than $100 million after a tortured production.
The budget for “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is reportedly more than double that of the first, and the $51 million production is the most expensive to date for Blumhouse. That exemplifies the confidence in the IP but also a reluctance from all parties not to overextend themselves financially.
After all, it’s about the big picture of IP’s many revenue routes — not putting all of a property’s chips in one basket.
Now dig into a VIP+ subscriber special report …
But while it’s the second-best gaming adaptation ever at the box office, having transcended poor critical reception in the process, bringing gaming IP to film and TV is no easy task.
At April’s LA Games Conference, one of the producers behind Universal’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s” outlined just how complex translating successful IP across mediums can be.
“It’s really about selectively seeding content into the marketplace, keeping content coming at a cadence that isn’t abusive but that’s engaging, and then letting the fans do the rest,” said Russell Binder, president and founding partner of licensing company Striker Entertainment, during a panel I moderated.
“Five Nights” started in 2014 as a small horror game from developer Scott Cawthon, who still owns the IP more than a decade later.
Per Binder, the process of first licensing “Five Nights” took two to three years, followed by another six between film producer Jason Blum getting involved and the 2023 debut of the first film, which will see a sequel in theaters this December. Well over a dozen games were released throughout this timeframe, and the 11th main installment, “Secret of the Mimic” is due June 13.
Per Binder, the overall IP was valued close to $2 billion as a consumer products business before crossing over to film.
“We’ve been on [‘Five Nights’] now for about 10 years, and when we started we really focused on the consumer products execution of that property,” he said. “What we found very quickly was that as popular as the game was, what was much more popular was the virality of people on YouTube and on social platforms playing with the IP, exploiting the jump scares and building a community.”
While “Five Nights” doesn’t rank among the top 10 film adaptations of gaming IP, its modest $20 million budget made its nearly $300 million global box office haul highly profitable, half of which came from domestic theaters — even with a day-and-date release on Peacock.
While HBO’s “The Last of Us” and Amazon’s “Fallout” are the best examples of gaming IP translating successfully to TV, live-action takes on high-fidelity games are expensive to make.
The next two years of gaming adaptations will be heavy on the film side, with IP including “Angry Birds” and “Resident Evil” returning to theaters. The latter is being rebooted for a second time by Sony after 2021’s “Welcome to Raccoon City” failed to capture the audience that showed up for six Milla Jovovich-led films before then. Likewise, 2019’s “Angry Birds 2” made less than half as much as the first take on the mobile game in 2016.
“Part of it is people age out,” said Binder, who added there are also going to be “misinterpretations of the IP for filmmakers.” April’s “Until Dawn” is an example of the latter and is struggling to get to $50 million globally, or even $20 million domestically.
While the R-rated horror flick was made cheaply enough to dodge a loss at Sony, the game’s writers weren’t credited, much to their dismay.
That’s in stark contrast to adaptations such as “The Last of Us,” “Fallout” and 2023’s “Mario,” which closely involved the IP’s originators.
However, Binder reminded there can be great difficulty the other way around.
“There’s going to be oversteps by developers who want to have so much control that they don’t always know the best way to adapt the project into a film or television show,” he said.
Binder wasn’t referring to any particular example, though Lionsgate’s “Borderlands” in 2024 springs to mind. Gearbox chief Randy Pitchford was in talks with producer Avi Arad for more than a decade to adapt it, only for the film to bomb hard and gross less than a third of its budget, which ballooned to more than $100 million after a tortured production.
The budget for “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is reportedly more than double that of the first, and the $51 million production is the most expensive to date for Blumhouse. That exemplifies the confidence in the IP but also a reluctance from all parties not to overextend themselves financially.
After all, it’s about the big picture of IP’s many revenue routes — not putting all of a property’s chips in one basket.
Now dig into a VIP+ subscriber special report …