Earlier this month, The Batman screenwriter and Terminator Zero showrunner Mattson Tomlin mentioned on Twitter that he’s received “5x more offers for video game adaptations than comic book adaptations this year,” a statement that makes perfect sense when you look at the release landscape for 2026. So far we’ve already had The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (another billion-dollar smash for Nintendo and Universal Pictures), as well as Mortal Kombat 2 and Iron Lung, Markiplier’s independent horror hit — and there’s still Resident Evil and Street Fighter coming before year’s end. Comic book movies have reigned supreme at the box office for about 20 years now, so they were bound to lose the crown at some point. And while no indisputable succession has happened yet, the writing on the wall says that video games are next up for the throne.
Of course, that depends on whether Hollywood plays the moment right. Even after the genre has proven it can be successful, it still isn’t avoiding fumbles. For every Minecraft Movie, there’s a box-office bomb like 2024’s Borderlands — but in Hollywood’s eyes, the potential earnings far outweigh the risks, and they’re pursuing this trend with a zealousness that suggests the IP recognition is worth more than whether or not the properties they’re adapting are truly suited for the big screen in the first place. The recent Universal/Atari deal, as lucrative as it undoubtedly is, only highlights the issue.
