As of August2024[update], Nintendo's The Super Mario Bros. Movie held the distinction as the highest-grossing video game film, while Pokémon is the highest-grossing video game film franchise and Resident Evil is the highest-grossing video game live-action film franchise.
List of highest-grossing video game film adaptations
†indicates films playing in theaters around the world in the week commencing 3 January 2025.
The following is a list of grossing films based on video games, all films have had a theatrical run (including re-releases) since 1993, films that have not played during this period do not appear on the chart because of ticket-price inflation, population size and ticket purchasing trends not being considered.
Pokémon is the most frequent franchise with 12 films on the list, while Nintendo is the most frequent publisher with 15 films on the list. As the only video game film to gross $1 billion worldwide, The Super Mario Bros. Movie sits among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time.
At least eight films have held the record of 'highest-grossing film of all time based on a video game' since the 1993 film Super Mario Bros. assumed the top spot.
The following is a list of the highest-grossing film series and film franchises based on video games. Pokémon sits as the highest-grossing franchise with over $1.5 billion at the box office, while Mario has the best average with $700 million per film.
† Background shading indicates that at least one film in the series is playing in the week commencing 3 January 2025 in theaters around the world.
Highest-grossing animated franchises and film series[§]
(The films in each franchise can be viewed by selecting "show")
The following table lists known estimated box office ticket sales for various high-grossing video games films that have sold more than 1million tickets worldwide.
Note that some of the data are incomplete due to a lack of available admissions data from a number of countries. Therefore, it is not an exhaustive list of all the highest-grossing video game films by ticket sales, so no rankings are given.
Pokémon the Movie 2000 is a 1999 Japanese animated fantasy adventure film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama. It is the second theatrical release in the Pokémon franchise.
Pokémon 4Ever is a 2001 Japanese anime film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama and based on the television series Pokémon. The fourth official Pokémon film, it was released in Japan on July 7, 2001. The film was directed in Japan by Kunihiko Yuyama and written by Hideki Sonoda. It stars the regular television cast of Rica Matsumoto, Ikue Ōtani, Mayumi Iizuka, Yūji Ueda, Megumi Hayashibara and Shin-ichiro Miki. The events of the film take place during Pokémon: Johto League Champions.
Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back is a 1998 Japanese anime fantasy adventure film directed by Kunihiko Yuyama. The first theatrical release in the Pokémon franchise, the plot takes place during the first season of Pokémon: Indigo League. The film was first released in Japan on July 18, 1998, to positive reviews, with praise directed at the film's emotional impact and exploration of ethical topics such as cloning, genetic modification, and existentialism.
Events in 2017 in anime. This year is known as the Anime Centennial Year, and was celebrated as its 100th anniversary to commemorate the ending of the Heisei era.
Pokémon Detective Pikachu is a 2019 fantasy film directed by Rob Letterman. Based on the Pokémon franchise, the film is a loose adaptation of the 2016 video game Detective Pikachu. It was written by Rob Letterman, Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit, and Derek Connolly, from a story by Hernandez, Samit, and Nicole Perlman, and produced by Legendary Pictures, The Pokémon Company, and Toho Co., Ltd. It was the first live-action Pokémon film, and the first live-action film based on a Nintendo game property since Super Mario Bros. (1993).
Case Closed: The Fist of Blue Sapphire, known as Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire in Japan, is a 2019 Japanese animated mystery film. It is the twenty-third installment of the Case Closed film series based on the manga series of the same name by Gosho Aoyama, following the 2018 film Case Closed: Zero the Enforcer. The film was released on 12 April 2019.
2020 in film is a history of events, which includes the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies, critics' lists of the best films of 2020, festivals, a list of country-specific lists of films released, and notable deaths.
A video game adaptation is primarily a film or television series that is based on a video game, usually incorporating elements of the game's plot or gameplay.
↑ 内地总票房排名[All-Time Domestic Box Office Rankings]. 中国票房 (China Box Office) (in Chinese). 艺恩 ENDATA Inc. Archived from the original on 16 February 2020. Retrieved 2 March 2020.
2012 film: "Japanese Box Office, September 8–9". Anime News Network. 2012-09-17. Retrieved 2021-08-09. Gekijōban Pocket Monster Best Wishes! Kyurem Vs Seikenshi Keldeo fell from No. 11 to No. 14 on Box Office Mojo's chart in its ninth weekend. The film features the new legendary Pokémon, Keldeo. Kunihiko Yuyama returned to direct the film after directing most of the previous films and The Slayers films. The film earned US$291,480 on 357 screens for a new total of US$44,057,737.
2013 film: "Japanese Box Office, September 7–8". Anime News Network. 2013-09-16. Retrieved 2021-08-09. The Pokémon the Movie: ExtremeSpeed Genesect film fell from #13 to #15 on Box Office Mojo's chart in its ninth weekend. Kunihiko Yuyama's feature film is billed as the final chapter of Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! (Pokemon: Black and White!). It features a confrontation between the legendary Pokémon ExtremeSpeed Red Genesect and Mewtwo, who returns in this installment in an alternate form. The film earned 22,971,203 yen (US$232,560) on 345 screens for a new total of 3,062,219,686 yen (US$31,001,912).
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