How Hollywood Can Master Gaming Adaptations
Having amassed more than $930 million worldwide, “A Minecraft Movie” is the singular IP that has lifted Hollywood’s prospects at the 2025 box office after a weak start.
On the TV side, “The Last of Us” is wrapping up a short but intense second season, while “Fallout” is returning sooner than expected this December. Then next spring, billion-dollar franchise “Mario” returns to theaters for another go at blockbuster stardom. Meanwhile, A24 announced Thursday it is making a live-action “Elden Ring” movie with director Alex Garland.
The list of gaming IP that continues to resonate in the film and TV spaces is slowly but surely growing, and yet the act of translating these properties to non-interactive mediums remains a careful process.
“[Consumers] want the brand that they want,” said Dan Prigg, EVP and head of studio at Skydance Interactive, during a panel I moderated for this week’s GamesBeat Summit in Los Angeles.
“[The] consumer doesn’t care how or what platform,” Prigg said. “They’re agnostic in that sense, whether it’s TikTok or YouTube or sitting in the theater.”
The enthusiasm for “A Minecraft Movie” certainly reflects Prigg’s sentiment. While it’s currently the best Hollywood production so far at the 2025 box office, critical reception skewed negative, making the success of “Minecraft” a feat pulled off by fervor for the IP from fans who felt their passion was respected and reflected on the big screen.
Maureen Fan, CEO and co-founder of Baobab Studios, spoke to the importance of understanding the data behind user engagement on interactive experiences and letting that drive the cause for adaptations, as opposed to assuming film and TV alone are superior mediums that can elevate any IP.
“My background is actually in user experience research, so I really value that, but that’s really something my team has had to learn,” said Fan. “My co-founder, he directed all the ‘Madagascar’ films. My co-chief recruit officer, she’s a sole producer of ‘Moana.’ So they come from this world that’s very much like, ‘I know better,’ but over the last however many years that we’ve been around, they’ve now gotten to the point where they’re craving that data.”
Earlier in her career, Fan worked on “Farmville,” where she first learned how much an interactive experience could thrive on its own.
“For ‘Farmville,’ we had 120 million monthly active users, and Hollywood came and wanted to turn it into a Hollywood TV show,” said Fan. “I said no, because the way I thought about it is, my game makes so much money, it’s not that much upside,” she said.
“Minecraft” ranks among the top bestselling games ever, where several other properties, including “Grand Theft Auto,” “Call of Duty,” “Roblox” and “Fortnite,” have yet to receive adaptations for film and TV, though Fan’s Baobab is more interested in experiences built within the latter two.
“Our core business model right now is, I will birth an IP on a Gen Z platform such as Roblox, Fortnite, gain a large audience, take the audience to Hollywood and use [them] as leverage and be like, ‘Look, I have all the eyeballs that you’ve lost,’ ” said Fan, referring to how Baobab has struck deals to bring Roblox-built IP including “Momoguro” to the TV space.
More recently, Roblox game “Grow a Garden” hit 5 million concurrent players, adding to 1.9 billion total visits since it launched in March, proving exactly why Fan and Baobab are bullish on that space.
George Collins, president of Alcon Interactive Group, part of Hollywood prodco Alcon Entertainment, spoke to how he thinks Hollywood could do more to build out IP within gaming experiences.
“I think what would surprise people is how much opportunity is missed on both ends of the equation,” Collins said. “I mean, how many great entertainment properties are not really being developed as games for all kinds of reasons, people not really realizing what a good opportunity that is.”
“Alcon does it both ways,” he said. “We own properties like ‘Blade Runner’ or ‘The Expanse,’ which we also develop as video games.”
Still, Prigg thinks that for some studios, the embrace of gaming IP comes down to being able to compete better with the biggest IP houses, as companies such as Disney have barely turned to gaming or toy IP in the manner its competitors have.
“Disney has more than enough IP that it can focus on, and so it’s spent a bunch of money for Pixar, Marvel, ‘Star Wars,’ and so it’s got to generate the return on investment of that,” said Prigg. “Warner Bros. does have … “[Harry] Potter” and DC, but they’re still, you know, they’re still losing a lot of money on these things, and so they’re trying to kind of double down.”
“They want to be Disney from an IP perspective,” Prigg said. “That’s always kind of the goal. You’d love to sit on both Marvel and ‘Star Wars’ as in your back pockets.”
For more analysis, read our VIP+ subscriber special report on gaming
On the TV side, “The Last of Us” is wrapping up a short but intense second season, while “Fallout” is returning sooner than expected this December. Then next spring, billion-dollar franchise “Mario” returns to theaters for another go at blockbuster stardom. Meanwhile, A24 announced Thursday it is making a live-action “Elden Ring” movie with director Alex Garland.
The list of gaming IP that continues to resonate in the film and TV spaces is slowly but surely growing, and yet the act of translating these properties to non-interactive mediums remains a careful process.
“[Consumers] want the brand that they want,” said Dan Prigg, EVP and head of studio at Skydance Interactive, during a panel I moderated for this week’s GamesBeat Summit in Los Angeles.
“[The] consumer doesn’t care how or what platform,” Prigg said. “They’re agnostic in that sense, whether it’s TikTok or YouTube or sitting in the theater.”
The enthusiasm for “A Minecraft Movie” certainly reflects Prigg’s sentiment. While it’s currently the best Hollywood production so far at the 2025 box office, critical reception skewed negative, making the success of “Minecraft” a feat pulled off by fervor for the IP from fans who felt their passion was respected and reflected on the big screen.
Maureen Fan, CEO and co-founder of Baobab Studios, spoke to the importance of understanding the data behind user engagement on interactive experiences and letting that drive the cause for adaptations, as opposed to assuming film and TV alone are superior mediums that can elevate any IP.
“My background is actually in user experience research, so I really value that, but that’s really something my team has had to learn,” said Fan. “My co-founder, he directed all the ‘Madagascar’ films. My co-chief recruit officer, she’s a sole producer of ‘Moana.’ So they come from this world that’s very much like, ‘I know better,’ but over the last however many years that we’ve been around, they’ve now gotten to the point where they’re craving that data.”
Earlier in her career, Fan worked on “Farmville,” where she first learned how much an interactive experience could thrive on its own.
“For ‘Farmville,’ we had 120 million monthly active users, and Hollywood came and wanted to turn it into a Hollywood TV show,” said Fan. “I said no, because the way I thought about it is, my game makes so much money, it’s not that much upside,” she said.
“Minecraft” ranks among the top bestselling games ever, where several other properties, including “Grand Theft Auto,” “Call of Duty,” “Roblox” and “Fortnite,” have yet to receive adaptations for film and TV, though Fan’s Baobab is more interested in experiences built within the latter two.
“Our core business model right now is, I will birth an IP on a Gen Z platform such as Roblox, Fortnite, gain a large audience, take the audience to Hollywood and use [them] as leverage and be like, ‘Look, I have all the eyeballs that you’ve lost,’ ” said Fan, referring to how Baobab has struck deals to bring Roblox-built IP including “Momoguro” to the TV space.
More recently, Roblox game “Grow a Garden” hit 5 million concurrent players, adding to 1.9 billion total visits since it launched in March, proving exactly why Fan and Baobab are bullish on that space.
George Collins, president of Alcon Interactive Group, part of Hollywood prodco Alcon Entertainment, spoke to how he thinks Hollywood could do more to build out IP within gaming experiences.
“I think what would surprise people is how much opportunity is missed on both ends of the equation,” Collins said. “I mean, how many great entertainment properties are not really being developed as games for all kinds of reasons, people not really realizing what a good opportunity that is.”
“Alcon does it both ways,” he said. “We own properties like ‘Blade Runner’ or ‘The Expanse,’ which we also develop as video games.”
Still, Prigg thinks that for some studios, the embrace of gaming IP comes down to being able to compete better with the biggest IP houses, as companies such as Disney have barely turned to gaming or toy IP in the manner its competitors have.
“Disney has more than enough IP that it can focus on, and so it’s spent a bunch of money for Pixar, Marvel, ‘Star Wars,’ and so it’s got to generate the return on investment of that,” said Prigg. “Warner Bros. does have … “[Harry] Potter” and DC, but they’re still, you know, they’re still losing a lot of money on these things, and so they’re trying to kind of double down.”
“They want to be Disney from an IP perspective,” Prigg said. “That’s always kind of the goal. You’d love to sit on both Marvel and ‘Star Wars’ as in your back pockets.”
For more analysis, read our VIP+ subscriber special report on gaming