Pokemon Go has created a sensation in the world of video games. The Pokemon media franchise extends to trading card games, animated television shows, toys, comic books and movies too.

Pokemon: The First Movie released as a Japanese anime in 1998. It was adapted to English and released more than a year later in the US, to negative reviews. Despite that, it was a box office success, topping the charts in its opening weekend, and eventually grossing $163.6 million worldwide. There have been more than 15 of them since. Reports have it that the success of Pokemon Go has fast-tracked the production of a live-action movie to be released next year, based on Detective Pikachu, a spin-off of the franchise.

Several video games have been the inspiration for movies. Some of them featured top stars and were box-office hits, while other hit games were terrible failures on screen. Super Mario Bros is one such blockbuster video game that sank as a movie. It was released in 1993 by a Walt Disney label, and grossed around $21 million. It cost $48 million to make.

Nintendo published Super Mario Bros in 1985. The game is credited with reviving the Amercian video game industry of that time and has been a bestseller of all time for a single platform for over 30 years, selling over 40 million units.

Angry Birds is another hit video game to inspire a movie. The animation film released in May this year to mixed reviews and is said to be the second biggest grosser in video game films, having made $333 million so far, after Warcraft .

Warcraft released last month in the US. It grossed $433 million worldwide, surpassing Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ($336 million) as the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time.

Another notable franchise is Lara Croft: Tomb Raider . Guinness World Records in 2006 called its Lara Croft character the “most successful human video game heroine”. None less than Angelina Jolie starred as British archaeologist Croft who fought enemies on her quest to retrieve ancient artefacts from all over the world.

Mortal Kombat, Max Payne, Silent Hill, Street Fighter, Hitman, Need for Speed , and Resident Evil are other video games adapted to film. Each film under Resident Evil has grossed over $100 million since the first was released in 2002. Milla Jovovich is the star.

Compiled by Sravanthi Challapalli

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