What Prince of Persia could mean to Video Game movies

They call them critic-proof, but over the course of a decade of movies based on popular video games, the general consensus is that they’re “not good”. That’s judgmental and one’s opinion, but the stats prove them right-mostly. This weekend’s new release from Disney, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time could give the genre a booster shot in the arm. While there have been a few box office successes with video game-based movies, having the budget, the cast, and Jerry Bruckheimer as the producer, could raises the quality of the video game genre.

Obviously, none of the behind-the-scenes positives can guarantee financial success, but it helps. On a budget of $150 million, what can Prince of Persia mean to the video game genre?

The Flops

The budget of Prince of Persia is one of the highest given to a video game based movie, so there’s a lot of clout riding on what it does this Memorial Day weekend. Interestingly, given the huge mainstream appeal of the PS3 and XBox 360, the genre has more flops than successes, and the genre isn’t that old. Wing Commander, one of the first hyped video game based movies bombed in the summer of 1999 to only $11 million on a $30 million budget. Super Mario Bros., commonly called the first video game based movie, tanked as well, with only $20 million at the box office on a $40 million dollar budget. The Uwe Boll films all bombed, notoriously House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark. 1994′s Street Fighter, riding high on the popularity of JCVD tanked as well ($33 million made on a $35 million budget). It should be noted that the film was far more successful worldwide than domestically.

So big video game titles-turned-movies doesn’t equal success. More to the point, though, is the lack of quality story telling and the descent into camp of most of these.

The Successes

Financially speaking, the Resident Evil films have been widely profitable, even so much so, as it usher in a new 3D fourth film. But it all began with Mortal Kombat as critics were slightly more kind to the film, as were audiences, making it a number one box office film. Years later, Max Payne followed this trend, as have the Tomb Raider films. And Silent Hill and Hitman doubled their budget, too. Taking this all into account, is what the producers brought to these films. Each of the successes had a decent story, quality actors, and dependable directors capable of making a far better film than those flops.

True, not all of those successes were critically favored, but it comes down to dollars. That’s what is needed for Prince of Persia to be successful, more so, than say my review. But these films are a fore-runner of what Jerry Bruckheimer got with Prince of Persia. In fact, the first Tomb Raider film proved to be a great blueprint. That film got a solid action director (Con Air) and two hot stars (Angelina Jolie and Daniel Craig). The film featured a decent story in honor of the series.

Prince of Persia followed suit. Mike Newell from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as the director and two hot stars, Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton. The supporting players had weight to the film with Sir Ben Kingsley and Alfred Molina. On paper, the budget, the stars, the producer, the FX, all look great.

The Bruckheimer Effect

If Prince of Persia succeeds financially, Disney and the video game genre can thank Jerry Bruckheimer. The man delivers summer movies the way we want our summer movies, and most of them have been very successfully at the box office. If Prince is successful, the ripple effect in the video game genre could change immediately. With announcements of films based on some of the better, hotter games recently like Heavy Rain, Bioshock, Halo, Mass Effect, and Metal Gear Solid, having a film like this-big stars, bigger producer, large budget-be successful, then the long stand niche genre could be a respectable genre.

If successful, it also means these announced projects could attract top talent, something the early films didn’t really receive. Helping the cause, is the allowance of Disney to have Bruckheimer have a PG-13 rating, something of a controversy when Disney allowed Pirates of the Caribbean to nab the studio’s first PG-13 rating. Those films dominated the box office, so it’s an easy correlation to why this film was allowed the rating. Bruckheimer produced the Pirates franchise, as well as this film.

Having Bruckerheimer, Disney, the cast, and being released on Memorial Day favors the film. But will audiences shell out a few Lincolns to see it? We shall see soon, but if we hope to get better video game films, then Prince of Persia must succeed financially. Maybe this is what has been needed to get the genre out of that niche appeal?

Thoughts? Opinions? Comment below!

Jon Peters

I love film. That is all.

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