Sony is hoping to replicate the record-breaking box-office success of Nintendo’s Mario Bros movie with a slew of ten live-action films and TV projects based on PlayStation video games.

Last February, Sony launched the first film based on a PlayStation game: Uncharted, which became the fifth-highest-grossing video game film in history.

This January, Sony produced the widely watched HBO series The Last Of Us, based on the game of the same name. The success of both these projects led Sony to greenlit ten more, to be produced over the next few years.

Next in line is an August cinema release based on the Gran Turismo racing-game series, which has sold 90 million games since launching on the original PlayStation console in 1997.

While this seems like an attempt to counter the Super Mario Bros. Movie — currently the highest-grossing film of 2023, as well as launching with the biggest worldwide opening weekend for an animated film — Sony set up PlayStation Productions in 2019, a unit dedicated to live-action adaptations of video games.

The initial inspiration was Marvel’s success is adapting franchises for the big screen.

“There’s a couple of things that really created PlayStation Productions,” Asad Qizilbash, who heads the division, told Nikkei Asia.

“One was our game franchises or game studios. We were trying to find ways to expand audiences for our games.

“Number two: Sony Pictures was looking for new franchises. At the same time, I was noticing the success of Marvel Studios, which was doing such a good job of adapting comic books with Disney.”

If it was Marvel that promoted the idea, than it was Mario that cemented it.

Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said in a corporate strategy meeting last week that he was among the crowds who saw the Mario movie.

“I believe beloved character IP can go on living for 30 years, 50 years or even a century,” he noted.

It works both ways, too. A successful movie can breathe new life into a gaming franchise. Which can increase hardware sales, or subscription

Currently, it makes more sense for Sony to focus on cinema than gaming, which is experiencing a post-COVID decline in demand.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry forecasts that over the next few years, the video game market is expected to see average annual growth of 6 per cent, compared to movies and anime, which are projected to increase at 29 per cent.