The Best And Worst Video Game Movies of All Time

Video game movies can be exciting, epic and fun! While some are the best movies ever laid to film, others have been absolutely brutal. Take a look at our list of the best, worst and otherwise notable video game movies of all time.

Highest Grossing Video Game Movie Ever

There are many video game movies that could hold this title. Tomb Raider, Sonic the Hedgehog and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within come to mind. However, the movie that holds the title of highest-grossing video game movie ever is Pokémon Detective Pikachu.

Pokémon Detective Pikachu (2019)

Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a live-action mystery movie directed by Rob Letterman, starring Ryan Reynolds. It grossed $433 million in ticket sales worldwide and surpassed Warcraft, directed by Duncan Jones.

Despite being the highest-grossing video game movie, it received only average or mixed ratings from Rotten Tomatoes. However, it still was the highest rated video game movie on the site until The Angry Birds Movie surpassed it.

Most Expensive Video Game Movie Ever

It comes as no surprise that video game movies can be expensive. They’re often full of amazing effects, hard-to-believe stunts and—more often than not—the destruction of a lot of (fake) property. While no movie holding the title of most expensive video game movie ever would be particularly surprising, it can only be held by one: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is an action-fantasy movie directed by Mike Newell and starring Jake Gyllenhaal. It was also the highest-grossing video game movie ever until it was surpassed by Warcraft (and later by Pokémon Detective Pikachu.) It had a production budget of $150–200 million.

The Guinness Book of World Records awarded The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time with six world records, including First Motion-Capture Animation and Highest-Rated Platformer on the PS2 and Xbox. The Assassins’ Creed series actually came from an idea for a Prince of Persia sequel.

Lowest-Grossing Video Game Movie Of All Time

They can’t all be hits and something has to take the title of lowest-grossing video game movie of all time. To date, holding that title for nearly 30 years, that movie is Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. (1993)

Super Mario Bros. is an adventure comedy directed by husband-and-wife, Rocky Morton and Annabelle Jankel. It also stars Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo. With a production budget of $42–48 million, it only grossed $38.9 million in worldwide ticket sales.

The movie adaptation has so little to do with the video game, there was too much of a disconnect for it to be popular, or appeal to fans of the game. The only resemblances were the names of the characters and the somewhat reminiscent nods to the game. The swearing littered throughout the movie wasn’t doing it any favors either. It’s no surprise that it grossed so little.

Worst Video Game Movie Of All Time

Although Super Mario Bros. is bad, there’s still one that’s worse, and that movie is Alone in the Dark.

Alone In The Dark (2005)

Alone in the Dark is an action-horror movie directed by Uwe Boll and starring Christian Slater and Tara Reid. It grossed $2.8 million in its first weekend and in the end, grossed a total of $12.7 million worldwide.

It won awards from the Stinkers Bad Movie Awards including Worst Picture, Worst Actress for Tara Reid, Worst Special Effects and Worst Director for Uwe Boll, and was nominated for Worst Song for Wish I Had an Angel (Nightwish). It was also nominated from the Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Director for Uwe Boll and Worst Actress for Tara Reid.

Honorable mentions: Resident Evil (2002), Warcraft (2016), Tomb Raider (2001).

Video game movies are some of the best—and sometimes—some of the worst movies out there. They cost a lot of money to make and, hopefully, make even more money at the box office. Even if they don’t quite live up to the expectations of fans, they always entertain, although sometimes it’s for the wrong reasons. They generate a lot of buzz, a lot of excitement and a lot of anticipation, and hopefully, there will be some more of that coming this year. A fun, new video game movie would be just the thing to lift spirits and give the audience a much-needed escape from reality.