In news that isn’t related to comic book superhero movies, Dwayne Johnson’s Rampage is making a real play at making video game movie history. The Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. and New Line Cinema release is going to presumably take a beating this weekend thanks to Avengers: Infinity War, but it’s already on its way to the top, or near the top, of the charts for movies based upon video games. Now that’s not exactly a terribly distinguished list, but it still bears worth a note.
As of this writing, Rampage, which stars Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris and a trio of very big, city-destroying animals, has earned $66.984 million in North America after 11 days of domestic release. That already makes it the sixth-biggest domestic earner, sans inflation, for video game adaptations. By the end of this weekend, assuming it doesn’t get pounded by Thanos, it’ll be just under the $85.7m (in 1999) gross of Pokémon: The First Movie.
And when it passes Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ($90.76 million in 2010), it’ll be the biggest-grossing live-action video game movie since Tomb Raider ($131.168m) in 2001. Oh, and if it gets past $105.922 million (the inflation-adjusted total for Prince of Persia), it’ll still be the biggest live-action video game flick since Angelina Jolie’s first Lara Croft adventure nearly 17 years ago.
It stands to reason that the film may be looking at a domestic total anywhere from $100 million to $115m, so somewhere just over/under the $107m gross (in 2016) of Sony’s animated Angry Birds Movie. Obviously, if it holds its own against Infinity War (and if it can survive this weekend it has two more weeks before Deadpool 2), then we may be looking at the second-biggest video game grosser ever in North America behind Tomb Raider, and a spot among the top five when adjusted for inflation.
Worldwide is a different and frankly more interesting story. If you want to know why studios still bet on video game movies despite very few of them breaking out, it’s partially because they tend to do a huge majority of their business overseas, even when compared to regular would-be blockbusters. In a time when Hollywood seems set on making movies that appeal to overseas audiences over domestic ones, or at least take bets that domestic disinterest will be balanced out by overseas glory, video game movies seem to be the best example of such.
Counting Rampage, the 11 game adaptations that have topped $200 million worldwide have earned, on average, 77.3% of their money overseas. Heck, if you remove the outlier (Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider, which earned 52% of its $274 million gross overseas way back in 2001), the number jumps to 79.8% among the ten other biggest video game grossers. Granted, some of the biggest video game movies (like Prince of Persia and Warcraft) were not hits and did not spawn successful franchises. But because New Line and WB’s Rampage cost $120m and MGM and WB’s Tomb Raider cost $94m, they may both qualify as relative video game-based hits.
Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft in ‘Tomb Raider’
Speaking of which, Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider flamed out in North America, earning $56 million domestic. So, I don’t want to hear any of you folks cheering about the notion of a “female Indiana Jones,” because we just had one and none of you showed up. But it caught fire overseas, comparatively, earning $212.6m overseas for a $269m global cume even if it flamed out after the first couple of weeks. That’s not a queen’s ransom, but it’s almost triple the budget so if it does well in post-theatrical there may be value in a second installment. That’s a hard call, and I’m glad I’m not the one who has to make it.
Rampage is a more clear-cut smash. It has already earned $285 million worldwide and should top $300m sometime this week. The $120m Brad Peyton-directed fantasy is playing as a kid-friendly monster mash action fantasy that just happens to be based on a 1980’s arcade game. Like, relatively speaking, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the folks behind Rampage made a movie that looked appealing even for folks with no interest in the IP. And it is already the sixth-biggest video game adaptation ever worldwide.
It should pass the $300 million gross of Resident Evil: Afterlife (in 2010) and the $312m gross of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (in 2017) late this weekend or early next week, at which point it’ll be fourth. Does it have enough juice to challenge Walt Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ($330m in 2010 on a $200m budget), Sony’s The Angry Birds Movie ($352m in 2016 on a $73m budget) or even Universal/Comcast Corp.’s Warcraft ($433m in 2016 on a $165m budget)? If Avengers: Infinity War was a week or two away, I’d say that a silver medal was guaranteed, but as it stands it’s a coin toss.
But since it cost a heck of a lot less than Prince of Persia and Warcraft, it can make less and still be (relatively speaking) a bigger hit. Does this mean Rampage has beaten the video game curse? Eh, not really. It’s still going to struggle to get past $400 million and it still earned mixed reviews even if I’d argue it’s the best video game movie ever (by default). Movies merely based in video game tropes (Jumanji, Ready Player One, etc.) are still a bigger deal than movies based upon video games.
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In news that isn’t related to comic book superhero movies, Dwayne Johnson’s Rampage is making a real play at making video game movie history. The Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc. and New Line Cinema release is going to presumably take a beating this weekend thanks to Avengers: Infinity War, but it’s already on its way to the top, or near the top, of the charts for movies based upon video games. Now that’s not exactly a terribly distinguished list, but it still bears worth a note.
As of this writing, Rampage, which stars Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris and a trio of very big, city-destroying animals, has earned $66.984 million in North America after 11 days of domestic release. That already makes it the sixth-biggest domestic earner, sans inflation, for video game adaptations. By the end of this weekend, assuming it doesn’t get pounded by Thanos, it’ll be just under the $85.7m (in 1999) gross of Pokémon: The First Movie.
And when it passes Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ($90.76 million in 2010), it’ll be the biggest-grossing live-action video game movie since Tomb Raider ($131.168m) in 2001. Oh, and if it gets past $105.922 million (the inflation-adjusted total for Prince of Persia), it’ll still be the biggest live-action video game flick since Angelina Jolie’s first Lara Croft adventure nearly 17 years ago.
It stands to reason that the film may be looking at a domestic total anywhere from $100 million to $115m, so somewhere just over/under the $107m gross (in 2016) of Sony’s animated Angry Birds Movie. Obviously, if it holds its own against Infinity War (and if it can survive this weekend it has two more weeks before Deadpool 2), then we may be looking at the second-biggest video game grosser ever in North America behind Tomb Raider, and a spot among the top five when adjusted for inflation.
Worldwide is a different and frankly more interesting story. If you want to know why studios still bet on video game movies despite very few of them breaking out, it’s partially because they tend to do a huge majority of their business overseas, even when compared to regular would-be blockbusters. In a time when Hollywood seems set on making movies that appeal to overseas audiences over domestic ones, or at least take bets that domestic disinterest will be balanced out by overseas glory, video game movies seem to be the best example of such.
Counting Rampage, the 11 game adaptations that have topped $200 million worldwide have earned, on average, 77.3% of their money overseas. Heck, if you remove the outlier (Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider, which earned 52% of its $274 million gross overseas way back in 2001), the number jumps to 79.8% among the ten other biggest video game grossers. Granted, some of the biggest video game movies (like Prince of Persia and Warcraft) were not hits and did not spawn successful franchises. But because New Line and WB’s Rampage cost $120m and MGM and WB’s Tomb Raider cost $94m, they may both qualify as relative video game-based hits.
Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft in ‘Tomb Raider’
Speaking of which, Alicia Vikander’s Tomb Raider flamed out in North America, earning $56 million domestic. So, I don’t want to hear any of you folks cheering about the notion of a “female Indiana Jones,” because we just had one and none of you showed up. But it caught fire overseas, comparatively, earning $212.6m overseas for a $269m global cume even if it flamed out after the first couple of weeks. That’s not a queen’s ransom, but it’s almost triple the budget so if it does well in post-theatrical there may be value in a second installment. That’s a hard call, and I’m glad I’m not the one who has to make it.
Rampage is a more clear-cut smash. It has already earned $285 million worldwide and should top $300m sometime this week. The $120m Brad Peyton-directed fantasy is playing as a kid-friendly monster mash action fantasy that just happens to be based on a 1980’s arcade game. Like, relatively speaking, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the folks behind Rampage made a movie that looked appealing even for folks with no interest in the IP. And it is already the sixth-biggest video game adaptation ever worldwide.
It should pass the $300 million gross of Resident Evil: Afterlife (in 2010) and the $312m gross of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (in 2017) late this weekend or early next week, at which point it’ll be fourth. Does it have enough juice to challenge Walt Disney’s Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ($330m in 2010 on a $200m budget), Sony’s The Angry Birds Movie ($352m in 2016 on a $73m budget) or even Universal/Comcast Corp.’s Warcraft ($433m in 2016 on a $165m budget)? If Avengers: Infinity War was a week or two away, I’d say that a silver medal was guaranteed, but as it stands it’s a coin toss.
But since it cost a heck of a lot less than Prince of Persia and Warcraft, it can make less and still be (relatively speaking) a bigger hit. Does this mean Rampage has beaten the video game curse? Eh, not really. It’s still going to struggle to get past $400 million and it still earned mixed reviews even if I’d argue it’s the best video game movie ever (by default). Movies merely based in video game tropes (Jumanji, Ready Player One, etc.) are still a bigger deal than movies based upon video games.
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