Historically, adaptations have never been met with success. Whether it is a classic book turned feature film, or a feature film transformed into a TV show, there has always been tension and critical misfires when translating IP. Nonetheless there has been an exponential increase in popularity in gaming as a hobby; with innovative technology comes more sophisticated and complex design and plots that make these games so enticing. This, alongside the creation of accessible gaming platforms and devices, such as Steam, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation has led to a surge in videogame consumption. The film industry, consequently, has clearly seen how popular these gaming franchises are, in part due to their incredibly strong, loyal, and ingrained fanbases, and has found a new target audience to tap into. With these games already having an established community, studios can exploit this to lower the pressure faced when attempting to attract an audience to their work, which could make or break their opening weekend at the box office. And with a lot of games being more story-driven and narrative focused such as The Last of Us, Resident Evil and Fall Out, featuring lore, complex characters and plots, games would effortlessly synthesise with the film genre.
Though, in this new era of film, which seems to be gravitating towards the comfort of games, it poses the question of how much creative liberty the director has over the franchise, and how much control the creator of the game has over the film. Most people are overly focused on how faithful the adaptation will be to the plot, characters, and aesthetics of the game. As we have seen in the past, fans of established franchises are incredibly hard to please. If the casting for a character does not comply with the preconceived image that the masses have unanimously agreed on, the pressure on the studio increases in risk of losing their audience. There is a delicate balance between the fear of alienating old fans, risking a negative impact on the franchise, and making necessary changes for the game to translate accordingly into the film medium. Filmmakers must also keep in mind that not everyone watching their adaptation is part of the original fanbase and thus needs to translate the visuality and crux of the game into the film for newcomers. Adaptations benefit both IP and studios as we have seen through release of the films like Sonic, The Mario Movie, The Minecraft Movie, Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil and now Street Fighter which have allowed videogame companies to further explore not only their franchise, but the capacity of their IP and draw in new fans, which encourages more content to be created. Games are now the current focus of the adaptation movement, especially titles that are still considered active but how do we go from console to the big screen?
Firstly, what is IP? IP stands for intellectual property which is anything created such as inventions, art, literature, symbols, slogans, and designs which are protected by law. There are a few ways to protect your IP, such as copyright, trademarks, and patents. In this case, games usually encompass a mix of all these protective marks. So, when it comes to the adaptation of a game, which means sharing your IP, there is a process that enables both IP and studio to work harmoniously together. The process itself requires legal contemplation, as engaging with existing IP comes with the challenges of ownership. Producers must have the necessary rights to work with unoriginal media, which is where adaptation agreements come into play. An adaptation agreement is a foundational legal contract that grants a filmmaker the right to adapt IP-protected works into another film, TV show, or book. This contract embodies the duration of how long the rights last, the territory which the adaptation can be released and even what happens when a sequel or spin offs are pitched. The most recent example of a successful game to film adaptation, and the case study for this analysis is Zach Creggor’s Resident Evil, a highly anticipated film originating from its franchise of the same name.
To get from game to screen, there is a long history between the creators of the franchise and the live action rights. Capcom, founded in Osaka, Japan, in June 1983 by Kenzo Tsujimoto, is the company responsible for the creation of the RE games, and the owners of the entirety of the Resident Evil game franchise including its characters such as Leon Kennedy and Ada Wong, and the game’s entire universe and location such as The Umbrella Corp and Raccoon City. It was only in 1996 when Don Friedman, a licensing coordinator for Capcom, contacted Marc Mostman (ELA) to pitch the game as a film, seeing its cinematic protentional from beyond a console. In spite of having a strong pitch and marketing strategy, every major studio in Hollywood rejected the proposed project. This was until the German production company Constantin Film heard about the idea and accepted it immediately. This partnership catalysed the 2002 release of the first Resident Evil movie directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Under their adaptation agreement, it was established that Capcom still owned the rights of the game, while Constantin Films owned the rights to the live action universe of the franchise. The agreement also made sure that the studio agreed to make and release live action films, or the rights would revert to Capcom. A major clause in the contract underlined by Capcom is that Constantin films cannot make a live action movie involving the games major protagonists/antagonists or any primary game story arcs, and instead can make parallel stories or separate universes that connect with the main narrative. This is why there has yet to be any live action films involving the franchises favourite characters.
Much like the adaptation agreement between Capcom and Constantin Films, both companies have a different share in merchandise. While Capcom is still the legal owner of the original IP, thus controlling the official cooperate merchandise, Constantin Films take charge of the film’s specific merchandise rights that are directly tied to the live action universe of the Resident Evil franchise; this includes ‘medic bag’ popcorn buckets that mirror the ones used by characters in the film. Constantin Films also has a long-standing relationship with Sony Productions as a distributor, and for this specific 2026 rendition of Resident Evil it marks the first time PlayStation has been involved in the franchise as the game has historically been known for being played on Sony devices.
In most cases when creative approval rights are discussed, the game developers often discuss scripts and characters beforehand to avoid tarnishing their image, but for the newest addition to the franchise, Zach Creggor (director of Barbarian and Weapons) was given full creative control by Capcom themselves. He avoided using characters already established in the franchise, and despite having said in interviews that he was nervous to take on such a feat in case he would upset the fans, the film was an overall success and became the biggest horror film of the year. Creggor placed careful odes to the original game franchise with the first-person shooter perspectives, and the dreary atmosphere. Despite not utilising any of the games original plots and characters, Creggor made the film feel a part of the franchise, involving zombie like mutations, a cure, and the infamous pharmaceutical and biotechnology conglomerate from the game (Umbrella Corp) which tied in the franchise to this new addition to the live action universe.
Game to film adaptations are overall a great way to expand the universe of existing IP beyond the console and allows for a different creative perspective to give new life and meaning to established worlds, and with the success of the collaborative efforts on the Resident Evil film I hope to see many more IPs branch out into new mediums.
Fabiola Stannard-Parages, October 2026