Video Game Fever: Can Hollywood Grow Esports?

Hollywood has a gaming fascination. From award-winning shows like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022), Arcane (2021), and The Last of Us (2023) to movies like The Super Mario Brothers Movie (2023), and Sonic the Hedgehog (2020, sequel in 2022) and the upcoming Legend of Zelda movie studios can’t get enough of video games. This is part of a larger trend toward multimedia storytelling, often called cross-media, which aims to tell related narratives across varied mediums. Today, it is not uncommon to see console games, mobile games, and video content for the same Intellectual Property (IP).

However, very little cross-media focuses on competitive Esport games; most underlying IPs are single-player and non-competitive games. Apart from Arcane, none of the media mentioned above is based on an IP relating to a competitive Esport. Future films also do not address Esports, with rumored upcoming releases including Minecraft, Borderlands, Mega Man, and Metal Gear Solid. These titles are similar to previous video game adaptations: more narrative than competitive. With the recent increase in video game-based movies, there may be an untapped opportunity for Esports IP.

The film Gran Turismo (2023), originally scheduled to release the same weekend as this year’s Gran Turismo World Series Showdown, has done an impressive job at the box office, surpassing $100 million in box office earnings. At one point, the movie even beat out the Barbie movie. On the game side, it boasts a 13% increase in player count the week before the release of the movie. This increase in player base was also seen by The Last of Us and Arcane after their cinematic releases. How this translates into player retention remains uncertain. With an impressive showing at the box office, this may translate to more media outlets focusing on Esports and an increase in the gaming player base. At a minimum, the influence of Hollywood on the Esport industry is a trend to watch.

As noted above, the benefits of cross-media to the Esport industry will be something interesting to watch compared to the growth realized by digital and peer-to-peer marketing. This industry is constantly evolving, and we are actively monitoring.

Authors: Barrett Ziegler and Phil Smart, CPA | [email protected]