From Video Games to Cinema, and vice versa!

The 2026 school year brings with it an exceptional calendar for pop culture, marked by the imminent release of highly anticipated giants like the Grand Theft Auto VI game and the Avengers: Doomsday film. But at the end of the year, we will especially be treated to cross adaptations between cinema and video games, from the return to the big screen of Capcom's flagship franchises Resident Evil and Street Fighter to the release of Marvel's Wolverine. But how was this bridge between cinema and video games born, and which franchises really launched the trend of adaptations?

The bridge between cinema and video games was born in the early 1980s with the first adaptations of films on consoles, notably E.T. and Tron in the 1980s. The opposite format of video games to cinemas appeared in 1993 with the film Super Mario Bros., followed by Street Fighter in 1994 and Mortal Kombat in 1995. The trend then took hold and became profitable in the early 2000s. thanks to the Lara Croft sagas: Tomb Raider (2001) and Resident Evil (2002), before breaking real records today with The Last of Us (series), Super Mario Bros. the film, or even Sonic.

For decades, the marriage between cinema and video games was more seen as a commercial arrangement rather than works in their own right. Faced with the appearance of these adaptations in the 1990s and 2000s, players gritted their teeth, critics looked away, but the public responded at the box office. Today, everything has changed: video games no longer seek the validation of the big screen, it is cinema and streaming platforms which come to draw from the tenth art of completely new scenarios, visuals and to please a new community. One of the reasons for the success of these new works is due to the fact that their creators grew up with a controller in hand, immersed in the world of video games, and no longer see these adaptations as simple investments, but as real cultural potential. With new adaptations planned for the end of 2026 of two films taken from the beginnings of the trend, Street Fighter and Resident Evil, we can see that the adaptation has become a real cultural experience, touching both fans of the revived games and new fans of the cinematographic versions.

The first film adaptation of a video game was Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! (1986).
The first official adaptation of a film into a video game was Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982), on the Atari 2600 console.

From the nonsense of the 1990s to the ultra-mastered productions of today, the crossover between controller and big screen has come a long way. Today, cinema and video games no longer copy each other: they elevate each other. And at Artoyz, we also bring these stories to life by offering you a wide choice of figurines from your favorite franchises!