Every 2026 Video Game Movie, Ranked

Paramount Pictures

Video game films are the new comic book movies in Hollywood. Indeed, after years of being abhorred or treated as something to be ashamed of or ridicule, these types of films have recently become a gold mine. For years, though, video game movies were infamous for distorting their source material's lore, featuring cheaper costumes than a Spirit Halloween, or outright looking at their audience and mocking them for liking video games in the first place. These are things the worst video game movies ever made all have in common.

Cut to the present-day, and that's no longer the case (mostly). Instead, we tend to get video game adaptations that actually understand how to translate games to the medium of film or TV (revising and changing them to fit a different format), along with creators that actually have something to say about the source material. From "Arcane" to "Castlevania," "Fallout," "Sonic the Hedgehog," and "Detective Pikachu," there's no shortage of great adaptations that understand what it is people love about video games while offering something fresh in a different medium.

In 2026 alone, we've gotten an abundance of movies based on video games, ranging from bad to truly excellent. So, it's about time we ranked them to determine what these films manage (or fail) to fully capture about their source material and translate to the big screen.

Without further ado, here's our ranking of all the Hollywood-backed and/or American video game movies released in 2026. (You can also read our review of "Exit 8," the Toho-distributed, Japanese-language film version of Kotake Create's video game "The Exit 8.")

Universal Pictures

The first "Super Mario Movie" was a monumental success in every sense of the word (save for the film's critical response, anyway). It captured audiences' attention around the world with a blend of nostalgia, bright and colorful animation, and a whole lot of needle drops. 

Its sequel, however, does things a little differently. Titled "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," it's still flashy and colorful, and it features an incredible cast of actors voicing famous Nintendo characters like Mario (Chris Pratt), Luigi (Charlie Day), and Yoshi (Donald Glover) as they travel across the stars in a new adventure. The only problem? It spends too much time introducing characters from the larger Nintendo world like it's a late-stage Marvel Cinematic Universe entry. To be sure, it goes full Nintendo Cinematic Universe by bringing in the likes of Fox McCloud (Glen Powell), even if a "Super Smash Bros." movie isn't in the cards just yet.

On the whole, "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" leaves a lot to be desired as a film. "Super Mario Galaxy" is a phenomenal video game loaded with visually striking worlds and innovative new gameplay mechanics. The movie adaptation, on the other hand, rings hollow and lifeless. It's simply way too concerned with referencing other (better) films than providing great scenes for viewers to remember long after the credits roll.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Compared to the 2021 "Mortal Kombat" movie, which inexplicably skipped the tournament that gives the original games a reason to exist and focus on a disappointingly bland original character, "Mortal Kombat II" is a massive improvement. Unlike its predecessor, this film understands the appeal of the fighting game franchise and centers on a big, violent tournament where powerful warriors face off in bloody combat. It also carries over the lore and aesthetic of the games without being overly faithful, serving up fights that feel like they came straight from the games yet are distinctly cinematic in their design.

What's more, "Mortal Kombat II" manages to weave some actual storytelling into the action, giving us memorable and grounded characters that nevertheless all have supernatural powers and fight in impossibly gory battles. With the addition of Karl Urban as the delightful Johnny Cage, plus visuals that capture the minutiae of the games' style (with certain fights being framed like they're stages in a video game, complete with floating platforms), this is the Platonic ideal of what "Mortal Kombat" can be on the big screen.

Paramount Pictures

We got not one but two movies this year based on fighting games, and they both take very different approaches to adapting their respective games. Where "Mortal Kombat II" embraces the imagery of its source material, "Street Fighter" goes for more traditional action. In point of fact, the film often feels indebted to Stephen Chow in the way that it mixes humor and violence, bringing its thrilling fights to life through kinetic choreography and dynamic camera movements while at the same time integrating physical comedy into its stunts.

Without question, 2026's "Street Fighter" is a tongue-in-cheek movie inspired by 1990s action films, serving up ridiculous character designs and campy performances that are presented with a straight face. It can even be visually stunning, particularly during the animated flashback sequences that fill in the backstory for leads Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) and Ryu (Andrew Koji). With imagery straight out of an ultra-violent direct-to-video anime from the '90s, these scenes are by far the highlight of "Street Fighter," providing stunning visuals, hard-hitting action, and a genuinely emotional narrative.

While it doesn't quite capture the ethos of the best "Street Fighter" video games, this movie certainly understands their appeal, as well as the relationship between their characters. It's why, at the end of the day, "Street Fighter" works better as a movie than "Mortal Kombat II."

Markiplier Studios

"Iron Lung" proved to be one of the biggest surprises of the year. It's a highly inventive indie sci-fi horror movie that was made by first-time director and YouTube sensation Markiplier, yet it ended up becoming a box office sensation. The film adapts the 2022 video game of the same name by David Szymanski and takes place after some mysterious catastrophe (known as the "Quiet Rapture") wiped out most of the Earth's human population. From there, it follows a prisoner named Simon (Markiplier) as he's forced to pilot a submarine through an ocean of blood.

Thanks to its simple premise, "Iron Lung" is able to be economical in its storytelling, with the entire film taking place in a single, impressively claustrophobic location. Markiplier proves adept at amping up the horror slowly, too, building up to a Lovecraftian threat that reveals the movie's true ambitions. More than that, the movie is able to be faithful to its source material (building an eerie atmosphere and an expansive world without over-explaining things) while still taking enough liberties to work as a satisfying standalone watch. 

As a whole, "Iron Lung" makes for a brain-melting and, again, quite literally bloody horror movie full of terrifying and nightmarish imagery — the kind that encapsulates the experience of playing a horror video game alone on a laptop late at night.

Sony Pictures Releasing

After decades and many attempts, we finally have a fantastic "Resident Evil" film, and it only took a horror director superstar who understood how to approach the universe of the games without being restricted by their reputation to do it. Yes, Zach Cregger's "Resident Evil" ignores the exact plot from the games and doesn't include any known characters from them, but it understands the true appeal of the best "Resident Evil" games. It's why watching Austin Abrams' hapless medical courier go through absolute hell during the movie feels closer to playing a "Resident Evil" video game than, say, having a fan-favorite like Leon Kennedy show up.

From the growing look of desperation on Abrams' face to the alarmingly limited options his character has to stay alive (or even just small things like annoyingly indestructible padlocks), the name of the game in this movie is frustration, desperation, and knowing that you're up against forces beyond your understanding or capacity to defeat. But maybe the best thing about the film is how much it recalls one of the journal entries you find in a "Resident Evil" game, telling the story of some poor schmuck who turned into a zombie. Even if the movie doesn't mirror anything from the games in terms of plot or characters, the feeling it evokes is the same as the long-running Capcom franchise. And, at the end of the day, isn't that what we want out of all video game adaptations?