The long-awaited A Minecraft Movie has made more than $930 million worldwide since its release in early April. Kids are still singing the “Steve’s Lava Chicken” song and quoting lines like, ”Chicken jockey!” at school. I heard it with my own ears when I picked my children up from their after-school program on Monday. It’s now become the second-highest grossing video game adaptation, after 2023’s A Super Mario Bros Movie. Given the movie’s smashing success, experts say we can probably expect a lot more video game movies in the future.

With “A Minecraft Movie” in striking distance of the billion-dollar mark at the global box office, there’s no better time to check in on the state of the video game industry, with an emphasis on its intersection with Hollywood.

Kaare Eriksen, author of a recent Variety Intelligence Platform special report on these subjects, tackles everything on the latest episode of Variety’s “Strictly Business” podcast — from the shadow that Trump-era tariffs could cast over Nintendo’s Switch 2 console launch next month to the shift of “Grand Theft Auto 6” to 2026.

Rockstar Games, publisher of the hugely popular franchise, announced earlier this month that “GTA 6” is now set to release on May 26, 2026. Many publishers behind big games expected this year were reportedly reluctant to commit to release dates until they knew for sure “GTA 6” is locked down to one.

“The immediate upside is the sheer reality that now some publishers can breathe a bit easy and schedule games for the fall,” said Eriksen.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros.’s “A Minecraft Movie,” starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, has done well enough to become the second-best gaming adaptation ever at the box office, which will certainly whet appetites among film execs to capitalize on other gaming properties.

“If there’s going to be any kind of ramifications of a ‘Minecraft’ movie doing so well, it is going to be studios obviously salivating for the chance to take some IP, whether it’s ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘Call of Duty,’ or even Fortnite and Roblox, and try to figure out a way to do movies around those if it means they could potentially bring out that big of an audience,” said Eriksen.

[From Variety]

Well, if there’s one thing that you can count on from Hollywood, it’s that they’ll take a successful formula and then throw a gazillion other movies just like it at us. Don’t forget how after Barbie’s success, there were reports that there are now projects in development based on other popular children’s toys, like American Girls, Thomas and Friends, and Polly Pocket. (FYI, Lena Dunham is no longer directing that movie.) I’m not surprised that the success of the Minecraft and Super Mario Bros movies is making Hollywood pay attention. That said, video game movies have been around for ages, like the Resident Evil series, Tomb Raider, the delightful Sonic the Hedgehog movies, and so many more. Most of them just weren’t made for all audiences. My kids would hands-down be there opening weekend for a Roblox or Fortnite movie. That’s the lesson they should take away here.

photos credit: James Shaw/Avalon, James Warren/Bang Showbiz/Avalon