Games to movies: Not proven winners

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV are among the games-adapted movies that hit the big screen recently on the Chinese mainland. [Photo provided to China Daily]

How do you turn a popular game into a successful movie? It is the question for which Hollywood has been seeking an answer for a while. And recent events in China show that there is no formula to guarantee success.

In the past three weeks, China has seen three games-adapted movies－Assassin's Creed, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, and Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV－hit the big screen.

Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter opened on Feb 24, while Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, the third installment of the series inspired by the Japanese game franchise Final Fantasy opened across the Chinese mainland on March 10.

But only The Final Chapter, the sixth installment and also the finale of the 15-year-old zombie-themed franchise Resident Evil, won hearts locally.

So far, the adventure of Milla Jovovich－playing the zombie-fighter Alice－has grossed around 1.1 billion yuan ($159 million) in China, more than six times the film's total receipts in North America.