Most video game movies that make it to Western nations are generally English language productions based on franchises with extremely high profiles, such as Pokemon or Resident Evil. In recent years these types of films have managed to accumulate large amounts of money, seeing not only a return on their budgets but also large profits.
However, there are plenty of movies that managed to be widely successful without penetrating the Western scene. Here are some film adaptations of games that are huge hits.
The article focuses on Japanese movies since that market is especially lucrative for these types of projects.
10 King Of Prism By Pretty Rhythm (2016) – 500,000,000 Yen ($3.7 Million)
The first of the Pretty Rhythm film adaptations took the massive success of its anime series and translated this into a box office return that was definitely nothing to sniff at. An interesting note about King of Prism is that it is often considered to be one of the pioneers of the “Cheer Screening” movement in Japan. A Cheer Screening is essentially the same thing as a normal cinema-going experience, but with very different societal expectations.
Instead of sitting in a cinema and politely watching the film, audiences are encouraged to sing along with musical numbers, shout responses to witty statements by characters and just generally have a good, loud, fun time. Similar in nature to cult film screenings, like showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show or The Room, expect in large multiplexes showing large nationwide releases.
9 Aikatsu! The Movie (2014) – 560,000,000 Yen ($4,279,000)
The Aikatsu franchise is one that can baffle people outside of Japanese arcade culture. Originally a mash-up between an arcade game and a Collectible Card game, the main focus of the series is helping various teenage girls fulfill their dreams of becoming “idols”.
The franchise has spawned a line of 3DS games, a widely popular anime, and, as it turns out, a Japanese-only movie that was a pretty decent success.
8 King Of Prism: Pride The Hero (2017) – 600,000,000 Yen ($4.6 Million)
King of Prism: Pride The Hero is an anime movie based on the extremely popular dancing-themed rhythm game, Pretty Rhythm. It is actually the second in a three-movie series focusing on a bizarre over-arching plot that concerns intellectual property theft.
Aside from its weirdly down-to-earth plot, what makes this film interesting is that it is technically a spin-off of a spin-off, being based technically not on the games, but on the games' anime adaptation. This adaptation was originally commissioned as an anime series that focused on the main characters of the games. The subsequent movies focus on the male side characters, in an attempt to make this cinema release more appealing to a wider demographic.
7 Monster Strike: The Movie (2016) – 740,000,000 Yen ($5.6 Million)
Monster Strike is a Japanese mobile-exclusive RPG that incorporates elements of puzzle games. It is a lucrative mobile game of all time that had accumulated $7.2 billion in revenue by 2018.
When it came time to adapt the game into a movie, Taku Kishimoto was chosen to turn the game's story into something that would work on screen. Kishimoto is known for bringing several popular anime series to life, such as Haikyu!!,Erased, and Fruits Basket, and his level of polish is definitely felt in his wonderfully creative screenplay for Monster Strike: The Movie.
6 The Idol Master Movie: Beyond The Brilliant Future! (2014) – 772,973,700 Yen ($5.9 Million)
A running theme with many Japanese video game movies that never made it to the English-speaking world is that they are based on very popular rhythm games. While this genre has seen success in other parts of the world, they are some of the most profitable video games ever in Japan.
What sets the IdolMaster series apart from other rhythm games is that they are also “life Sims”, which sees the player becoming fully immersed in the lives of the prospective “idols” they play as, creating a high level of connection with the characters in-game. This level of connection served to create many beloved and well-realized characters that helped to attract a large domestic audience towards the release of the film adaptation, which saw a sizable box office return.
5 Forbidden Siren (2006) – 790,000,000 Yen ($6 Million)
If the Forbidden Siren franchise had only existed a couple of years earlier, then it might have been able to ride on the J-Horror craze of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Unfortunately, the film was released at a time when market interest for the genre outside of Japan had been sullied by the release of several mediocre remakes of popular properties.
Domestically, however, this adaptation of the fantastic Siren franchise managed to have a fairly impressive box office run, and it is nowadays a fondly remembered B-movie both by fans and horror enthusiasts alike.
4 Yo-Kai Watch: Forever Friends (2018) – 1,250,000,000 Yen ($9.6 Million)
This film is but one of many adaptations of a series that has seen well over 17 million games shipped since the release of the first Yo-Kai Watch game in 2013. Despite the popularity of the video game portion of the franchise, the various film adaptations have never seen a wider international release.
This is a shame, as most of the films have been very well received in their native Japan. Acting as a prequel to the Yo-Kai Watch anime series, this film is an absolute must-watch for any fan of the Yo-Kai Watch franchise in general. Its 1960s-inspired setting lends itself oddly well to this tale of Yo-Kai hunting and the wonders of friendship.
3 Animal Crossing (2006) – 1,700,000,000 Yen ($12.9 Million)
Considering just how popular the Animal Crossing series has become in recent years, it may seem odd that the eponymous movie was never given a wide release outside of Japan until much later, and even then only with foreign language subtitles. However, once one considers the context of the film's original release, way back in 2006, things begin to make more sense.
Back in the mid-2000s, Animal Crossing was considered something of an interesting yet peculiar video game franchise, not one that fits neatly into the wider English-speaking gaming market of the time, meaning there wasn’t really a place for this extremely chilled out release back then. But in Japan, the series was already becoming a veritable phenomenon, as large as it is today, hence the warm reception this film received.
2 Yo-Kai Watch Shadowside: Oni-O no Fukkatsu (2017) – 2,040,000,000 Yen ($15.6 Million)
Perhaps if more video-game movie adaptations were made in the same way as the Yo-Kai Watch films, then these types of releases would have a generally higher level of quality. The film is a masterclass in balancing the vision of the developers (with Level-5 president Akihiro Hino overseeing the project) while still making the film engaging as a film.
Interestingly, while Shadowside works well as part of the film series, it actually heavily impacts the lore of the franchise. The movie introduces one of the main “time” settings of the fourth Yo-Kai Watch game – making it slightly frustrating that this project was never given a wide release in the English-speaking world.
1 Yo-Kai Watch: Soratobu Kujira to Double No Sekai no Daiboken da Nyan! (2016) – 3,260,000,000 Yen ($25 Million)
The third Yo-Kai Watch film, sometimes known as Yo-Kai Watch The Movie: A Whole of Two Wolds, managed to amass $25 million dollars, making it the highest-grossing video game movie never to receive a full-scale international release. That amount of money also makes it one of the highest-grossing Japanese films of 2016, with Soratobu Kujira to Double No Sekai no Daiboken da Nyan! being the most viewed movie in the country during the first week of its release.
The wide success of the Yo-Kai Watch video game franchise, along with the smash success of its film adaptations in Japan (albeit, with diminishing returns after this entry) really makes the fact that none of these features saw wider international releases strange.