Chapter 917: Video Game Film Adaptations Are Inherently Contradictory

"What do I think?"

Duke shrugged. This situation was bound to happen in the future; it was just hard to say exactly when. Seeing that George Lucas was about to speak again, he reminded Sofia Coppola.

"Let's hear what Uncle Lucas has to say first," he told her.

"In the future, high-budget blockbusters will play on the big screen for much longer, and ticket prices will become exceptionally high."

Standing next to Steven Spielberg, George Lucas shared his forecast for the Hollywood film industry with the group of directors.

"After the film industry collapses, there will be fewer theaters, but they will be much larger in scale," he said. "Movie tickets will cost 50, 100, or even 150 dollars. They'll become incredibly expensive, just like Broadway or football tickets today. And films will stay in theaters for an entire year, just like Broadway shows."

"Big-budget films will screen on the big screen, and ticket prices will be high," George Lucas continued. "Everything else will be relegated to the small screen. In fact, things are almost at that point already. Lincoln and Red Tails barely made it into theaters. You might even say Steven Spielberg and George Lucas can't get their movies into cinemas."

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were two of the most successful film directors and producers in history. Their predictions about the future of the film industry were certainly alarming.

Nearby, directors like Duncan Jones and Ron Howard were sharing their own opinions. Though he had a different perspective, Duke felt this wasn't the right occasion for a debate. He kept his thoughts to himself, turned away from the circle, and headed toward a seating area on the other side of the room.

Sofia Coppola followed close behind. The two found a quiet little round table, sat down, and resumed their earlier conversation.

"Don't you think Steven and George made a lot of sense?" Sofia Coppola leaned back in her chair, a slight nasal tone in her voice. "That situation is definitely going to happen in the future."

"It is. A major transformation in the film industry is inevitable, and George and Steven aren't wrong."

There was no one else around. With just the two of them there, Duke crossed his arms and shared his perspective.

"Still, it's not time to cry for Hollywood just yet," he said. "Plenty of movies are still making huge profits, and television shows aimed at the small screen are selling well, too. On top of that, Hollywood's on-demand services are making these films and shows far more accessible to audiences than ever before."

It was exactly as Duke had said in the past. In an era where movies could be watched through countless channels, why wouldn't audiences choose the comfort of their own homes instead of rushing to a theater to contribute to the box office?

The rise of big-budget commercial blockbusters as Hollywood's mainstream was an inevitable consequence of the times. Unless they stopped caring about profit, no one could change that reality—not even George Lucas and Steven Spielberg working together.

"And consumers have even less reason to worry," Duke said, tilting his head. "The faster the traditional film industry collapses, the sooner they'll be able to watch whatever they want on their personal screens. They won't have to cram into crowded theaters, paying a premium for tickets just to stare at the big screen from the side seats."

Sofia Coppola shrugged. She knew their philosophies on cinema were worlds apart, and she couldn't be bothered to continue the discussion.

Footsteps approached. Duke glanced over to see Duncan Jones walking up.

"Hi, Duke," he said.

"Hello, Duncan." Duke gestured to an empty chair nearby. "Have a seat."

Duncan Jones didn't stand on ceremony and sat right down. Sofia Coppola felt a twinge of confusion. As Duke's best friend in the industry, she knew he and Duncan were far from close. For the British director to seek Duke out directly, he clearly wanted something.

The British director looked at Duke and didn't beat around the bush.

"My crew has run into some funding difficulties," Duncan said. "You previously considered investing. Are you still interested?"

Duke shook his head. "Unless you can convince Blizzard and Legendary Pictures."

Back when Duke poached Daniel Wu from the World of Warcraft crew, he had someone try to negotiate an investment in the project with Blizzard. But Blizzard wasn't stupid. They understood that as long as the film's production quality was up to par, profitability was practically guaranteed, given the massive fanbases amassed by the World of Warcraft and Warcraft games. They had rejected Duke without hesitation.

Just as Duke didn't want others casually interfering with his profitable projects, Blizzard wasn't stupid, and they certainly weren't a charity.

Duncan Jones complained a bit more about Duke poaching Daniel Wu and forcing him to find a replacement actor at the last minute, before walking off with a hint of disappointment.

He was just the director of the project. In Hollywood, unless you were a director at the level of Duke or Spielberg, you couldn't expect to wield much real power.

"If Duncan Jones can actually convince Blizzard and Legendary Pictures, I wouldn't mind investing some money."

Watching his retreating back, Duke said to Sofia Coppola, "Even though the risk for this project is a bit high."

Sofia Coppola immediately asked, "You don't have faith in Blizzard's adaptation?"

"The World of Warcraft game is definitely worth adapting, but compared to today's mainstream sci-fi action movies, the risk is much higher." Duke explained, "If you had to put a label on video game adaptations around the world, 'failure' might be the most fitting word."

Hearing this, Sofia Coppola nodded slightly. It really was the truth.

Duke shook his head. Perhaps World of Warcraft could reverse the dismal trend of video game movies, but the reality was exactly as he had said—the risk of failure was exceptionally high.

With the rise of mobile games in recent years and the extreme popularity of the IP concept, the whole world had ushered in a brand new era of synergy between film and gaming.

Film and gaming leveraged their respective influences to support each other, bringing more and more successful cross-media collaborations into the public eye. However, the vast majority of those successes were games adapted from movies. In stark contrast, films adapted from video games suffered defeat after defeat, earning the scorn of the public.

It had to be said that video game film adaptations were an unattainable industry in Hollywood, unable to escape the doom of failure.

In 1993, Super Mario Bros., a movie based on the hit game Super Mario, made its grand appearance. Its release single-handedly created an entirely new genre—the video game adaptation.

Looking back at how the Super Mario Bros. movie performed in the market, even with the backing of a powerhouse IP to draw in fans, it was all hype with little substance and suffered defeat. Not only were its box office numbers completely atrocious, it couldn't even recoup its production costs.

The main reason for this lay in the massive plot overhauls required for video game adaptations, which ultimately resulted in terrible cinematic quality. In the 1993 Super Mario Bros. film, not only did it fail to capture the essence of the characters, but the heavily altered plot also diverged entirely too far from the game's story. Neither gamers nor general moviegoers bought into it, sealing its fate as a failure.

Because of this disastrous first outing, video game movies gradually faded from the public eye.

Over the past decade or so, some studios had tried their hand at game adaptations again, but to date, there still wasn't a single case that could be called a massive success. Even major blockbuster adaptations of famous titles like Prince of Persia, Silent Hill, and Tomb Raider—which boasted incredibly strong IPs during the height of the IP craze—saw their revenues stall under 200 million dollars. They merely broke even.

With the fervor for film-game synergy growing increasingly intense in recent years, the enthusiasm for video game movies seemed to have reignited, bringing a new wave of game-to-film adaptations sweeping in.

Among them, the most highly anticipated were undoubtedly World of Warcraft and Assassin's Creed. These were universally acclaimed, phenomenon-level games with countless loyal fans and massive love from the gaming community.

But it was worth asking: with these heavyweight projects flocking together once again in today's fervor for cross-media synergy, could video game film adaptations finally escape the doom of failure?

Frankly speaking, the risk was still incredibly high.

"Why is it that movies adapted into games perform so brilliantly," Sofia Coppola asked, genuinely curious despite having never studied the subject, "but games adapted into movies fail time and time again?"

"In a sense, a video game film adaptation is an inherent contradiction."

Unlike Sofia Coppola, Duke was a businessman in addition to being a director, and he had naturally done his research on the types of films he could invest in.

"A game adapted into a movie is different from a movie adapted into a game," he said. "There is a distinct difference in their user bases."

Seeing that Sofia Coppola still looked confused, Duke decided to spell it out for her.

"Even though video game film adaptations come with their own built-in fanbases just like movies do, when evaluating the influence of a gaming IP against a global film market of this sheer scale, it is as insignificant as an ant compared to a massive tree," he explained. "Because of that, the number of global moviegoers can completely eclipse the number of gamers, but the gamer audience will never be large enough to eclipse the moviegoing audience."

No one could deny that the cultural impact and reach of a hit movie far exceeded that of a hit game.

"What are you guys talking about?" Scarlett strode over, pulled up a chair, and sat down next to Duke. "You look like you're having a pretty intense discussion."

"Video game movie adaptations," Sofia Coppola explained briefly to Scarlett Johansson before turning back to Duke. "Are there any other reasons?"

"The difference in audience demographics is just one part of it," Duke said with a nod. "There's also another side to the issue."