On a brighter note, some video game properties remain evergreen. The Super Mario Bros. franchise celebrated its 40th anniversary in September, and Pac-Man celebrated its 45th. It was a huge year for Minecraft, which still dominates the attention of Gen Z gamers, and WB’s release of A Minecraft Movie starring Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Danielle Brooks saw the highest opening weekend for a film based on a video game, surpassing the former record held by The Super Mario Bro. Movie (2023). A Minecraft Movie’s total worldwide run couldn’t topple the billion-dollar plumbers, but it still made a whopping $957.9 million and ended the year as WB’s highest-grossing film. Sony’s Until Dawn didn’t fare nearly as well, but still managed to make $54 million on a $15 million budget while proving to be a unique way into video game adaptations. An animated series based on the Splinter Cell games, with Liev Schreiber voicing Sam Fisher, landed on Netflix in October and was quickly picked up for a second season. Still to come in December are Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 and the second season of Fallout on Prime Video. Next year, we’ll see just how far video game adaptations can go on the theatrical side with the releases of Return to Silent Hill, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Mortal Kombat II, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, The Mortuary Assistant, and somehow, against all odds, The Angry Birds Movie 3.