After having already set a record for best domestic opening for a video game-adjacent property at the box office via 2020’s “Sonic the Hedgehog,” Paramount’s “Sonic” sequel has managed to do it again after opening to more than $70 million over the April 8th weekend.

A record is a record, but “Sonic 2” also follows a successful box office run for Sony’s eponymous “Uncharted” adaptation based on Sony Interactive Entertainment’s highly popular PlayStation games.

Major film studios have long attempted to turn gaming IP into theatrical glory, so why are such successes only now starting to no longer feel like anomalies?

Family-Friendly Games Make for Easily Marketable Film Adaptations

A quick look at the box-office leaderboard for game adaptations unsurprisingly shows that films based off video-game IP generally do better when the IP itself is kid-friendly and not beholden to dense plots.

Given that Sega’s “Sonic” games revolve around their titular character collecting lots and lots of gold rings, much narrative flexibility has been granted when it comes to turning the IP into a live-action storytelling experience that is already getting the extended-universe treatment from Paramount.

As more plot-heavy game-adjacent franchises like “The Witcher,” “The Last of Us” and “Fallout” get adapted for TV instead of film these days, it’s clear that IP more suitable to an anything-goes attitude, such as Warner Bros.’ 2019 detective spin on the Pokémon franchise that held the best-debut record for such films before “Sonic,” has the best chance of thriving in theaters.

Excluding “Resident Evil: Afterlife,” the 10 highest-grossing adaptations of video games are all rated PG-13 or under and were greenlit from games not particularly known for excessively bloody or gory violence at the time of each film’s release (that is no longer the case with Square Enix’s newer “Tomb Raider” games).

As for the lone “Resident Evil” film in the top 10, the fourth entry in six Milla Jovovich-led films loosely adapted from Capcom’s survival horror series, its success had little to do with audiences desiring more violent video game adaptations and everything to do with the film having been shot for a 3D release in 2010 that followed the record-shattering box office run of “Avatar.”

Star Power Still Matters

While “Uncharted” went through many delays before releasing in February, such calendar pushes enabled the film to hit theaters as the head-turning success of December’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” began to wind down.

As of April 10, 80% of Sony’s $480 million cumulative domestic gross for 2022, the best of all the major studios so far, is due to Holland-led films, per Comscore data.

Likewise, two other film adaptations of adventure game franchises “Tomb Raider” and “Prince of Persia,” both similar to “Uncharted” in tone and set pieces, still rank among the top 10 game adaptations at the box office after relying on the momentum of stars Angelina Jolie and Jake Gyllenhaal, respectively, at the time of their release.

Then there’s “Rampage.” Despite being adapted from games played primarily in arcades, Warner Bros.’ casting of Dwayne Johnson obviously gave the film enough of a leg up to open to more than any “Resident Evil” film has ever done.

Ben Schwartz, the voice of Sonic in Paramount’s movies, is still primarily known for his recurring role on NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation” despite being a very active screen and voice actor, so it’s difficult to say Schwartz is a big part of the draw given that the “Sonic” movies also count Jim Carrey and James Marsden in human form as top-billed cast.

In fact, there’s a bigger factor driving the success of “Sonic.”

Nailing the Visual and Tonal Aesthetic of a Game Is Key for Any Adaptation

When the first trailer for “Sonic the Hedgehog” dropped in 2019, fans were quick to point out and ridicule flaws in the character design of Sonic, so much so that Paramount delayed the film so animators could redesign Sonic in better accordance with the character’s appearance in the games.

Given how Universal’s film adaptation of stage hit “Cats” received similar complaints over its CGI design and bombed upon its 2019 release, Paramount likely made the right call.

As for “Uncharted,” Sony’s film wasn’t adapted from any specific game in that franchise. Instead, the film took base characters Nathan Drake and Victor “Sully” Sullivan as well as select action sequences from multiple games in order to match their tone, resulting in a movie that was true to the spirit of the games but not encumbered with bringing any specific game story to life.

Since popular video games are generally known and praised for their visual acumen and presentation, adapting them for the big screen, be it through animation, live action or a combination of both, is a daunting task.

While plenty of video game films are in the works, only two are near completion: Lionsgate’s take on the chaotic and zany “Borderlands” franchise from Take-Two’s 2K Games label and Universal’s animated feature film for Nintendo’s “Mario” character being made by Illumination, the studio known for “Despicable Me” and its “Minions” spinoff.

Meanwhile, one major film studio is absent from the list of video game films in development: Disney. With the level of attention and detail required to really match the tone of any beloved game franchise, it does make sense that an IP hub like Disney wouldn’t want to take on the stress in bringing another company’s vision to life, as Paramount has done with “Sonic” and Universal is attempting with “Mario.”

But with the heel turns studios have made with these adaptations, Disney could easily reconsider and find their own way to change the game of video-game cinema.