Games click with movie studios

Hollywood needs a replacement for superheroes to win over younger viewers.

- By SAMANTHA MASUNAGA

SONIC the Hedgehog, top, and Mario have hit video games and films.

For years, Hollywood relied on a steady stream of comic book adaptations to power the box office and draw audiences in.

But as superheroes have faltered, studios are scrambling to figure out what's next. Is it video games?

That’s the bet several studios — including the newly recapitalized Paramount — are making, particularly because games have a builtin fanbase and appeal to younger audiences.

With Paramount and Santa Monica-based video game publisher Activision's recent deal to adapt “Call of Duty” for the big screen, new media mogul David Ellison is looking to capture the zeal of its die-hard fans along with the interest of those who've never heard of the first-person-shooter game.

“Call of Duty” joins a long list of video game adaptations, particularly in the last few years, when gaming properties including “The Last of Us,” “Twisted Metal,” “Minecraft” and “Super Mario Bros.” have all hit screens.

“It’s going to be just another avenue of source material, the same way comic books were,” said Roy Lee, producer of several video game adaptations, including “A Minecraft Movie,” “Until Dawn” and the upcoming reboot of “Resident Evil.” “It's going to be considered more viable than it has been in the past.”

Recently, film adaptations of video games have proved to be big business.

The top-grossing adaptation ever is 2023's “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” from Universal Pictures, Ilumi-nation Entertainment and Nintendo, which garnered more than $1.3 billion in global box office revenue, followed by this spring’s surprise hit “A Minecraft Movie,” which hauled in almost $958 million worldwide. In third place is 2024's “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” from Paramount Pictures, which raked in $492 million, according to data from industry newsletter Fran-chiseRe.