Grand theft video

After years of mining comic books for superheroes, film and TV companies have turned their sights on gamers’ favourites to build new universes

- Mark Sweney

For fans of Mario and Luigi, the moustachioed plumbers who began life as blocky 2D pixels in the early 1980s, the prospect of a $100m feature film stuffed with special effects and Hollywood stars including Chris Pratt, Jack Black and Seth Rogen could feel like defeating the boss in the final level of a platform game.

The box office-busting Super Mario Bros movie, alongside the The Last of Us, are likely to fuel a record decade for gaming adaptations, after years of film and TV companies mining comic books for superheroes.

Scathing reviews of the Super Mario Bros film, released last month, have failed to dent its pulling power. In its first week it overtook Warcraft (released in 2016) as the highest-grossing game adaptation, breaking a long history of big-screen flops for video game-themed movies; now, $1bn in ticket sales beckons.

Meanwhile, post-apocalyptic thriller The Last of Us upped the TV potential for games after the adaptation of a PlayStation title achieved global critical acclaim and popularity with viewers.

While the gaming industry has an enviable record of creating blockbusters - at launch a decade ago Grand Theft Auto 5 became the fastest entertainment property to gross $1bn, hitting that mark in three days - the transition of titles to TV and film has, for the most part, been commercially underwhelming.