List of films based on video games

This page is a list of film adaptations of video games. These include local, national, international, direct-to-video and TV releases, and (in certain cases) online releases. They include their scores on Rotten Tomatoes, the region in which they were released, approximate budget, their approximate box office revenue (for theatrical releases), distributor of the film, and the publisher of the original game at the time the film was made (this means that publishers may change between two adaptations of the same game or game series, such as Mortal Kombat). Also included are short films, cutscene films (made up of cutscenes and cinematics from the actual games), documentaries with video games as their subjects and films in which video games play a large part (such as Tron or WarGames).

Theatrical releases
By original language of the release.

Short films
Listed below are original short films produced, commissioned or licensed from a game publisher.

Films with plots centered on video games

 * Tron (1982) – Directed by Steven Lisberger. Kevin Flynn, an arcade game designer, gets sucked into the video game world he created and has to fight his way back to the real world.
 * Nightmares (1983) – Directed by Joseph Sargent. The segment "Bishop of Battle" stars Emilio Estevez as a video game wizard who breaks into the arcade at night to get to the 13th level, in doing so he becomes part of the game.
 * WarGames (1983) – Directed by John Badham. Computer hacker breaks into military intelligence computer to play games, which almost starts a thermonuclear war.
 * Joysticks (1983) – Directed by Greydon Clark. When a top local businessman and his two bumbling nephews try to shut down the town's only video arcade, arcade employees and patrons fight back.
 * Cloak & Dagger (1984) – Directed by Richard Franklin. A young boy has secret plans given to him in the form of a video game cartridge, which he must protect from spies.
 * The Last Starfighter (1984) – Directed by Nick Castle. A boy, who is very good at a video game in his trailer park, finds himself recruited to be a pilot for an alien defense force just like the game he plays.
 * The Dungeonmaster (1985) – Directed by Charles Band & Ted Nicolaou. A computer whiz is drawn into a series of realistic simulations by a demonic wizard who considers him a worthy adversary. Armed with his wrist-mounted X-CaliBR8 computer, he must solve the puzzles and rescue his girlfriend.
 * Hollywood Zap! (1986) – Directed by David Cohen.Tucker Downs tires of his boring job selling bras to fat ladies in Mississippi and heads for Hollywood to look for his long lost father. En route, Downs hooks up with wasted video game addict/hustler Ben Frank who is seeking a title match with "The Zap," holder of the record score in Zaxxon.
 * Kung Fu Master (1988) – Directed by Agnès Varda. A love story between a 40-year-old woman (Jane Birkin) and a 15-year-old boy addicted to the arcade game Kung-Fu Master.
 * The Wizard (1989) – Directed by Todd Holland. A boy with mental problems decides to run away to compete in a video game contest and his brother helps him hitchhike to the tournament. Features numerous NES video games, primarily Super Mario Bros. 3 before its American release.
 * The Lawnmower Man (1992) – Directed by Brett Leonard. A mentally handicapped man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science and virtual reality.
 * Arcade (1993) – Directed by Albert Pyun. A teenager has to battle inside of a deadly virtual reality video game, in order to save her friends.
 * Brainscan (1994) – Directed by John Flynn. A teenager is sent a mysterious computer game that uses hypnosis to make the game the most horrifying experience imaginable. He stops playing, only to find evidence that the murders depicted in the game actually happened.
 * Nirvana (1997) – Directed by Gabriele Salvatores. A computer game designer finds that his latest video game has a virus which has given consciousness to the main character of the game, Solo.
 * eXistenZ (1999) – Directed by David Cronenberg. A game designer finds herself targeted by assassins while playing a virtual reality game of her own creation.
 * How to Make a Monster (2001) – Directed by George Huang. An evil video game comes to life and hunts the group of developers.
 * Avalon (2001) – Directed by Mamoru Oshii. Science fiction film centered on a war-themed, virtual reality MMO under the same title.
 * Game Over (2003) – Directed by Jason Bourque. Uses footage from five different Digital Pictures games.
 * Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003) – Directed by Robert Rodriguez. Carmen Cortez is caught in a virtual reality game designed by their new nemesis, the Toymaker. Juni, her little brother, goes into the game to save her as well as beta players and the world.
 * GameBox 1.0 (2004) – Directed by David Hillenbrand & Scott Hillenbrand. A video game tester must fight to escape from a video game that has become all too real.
 * Satan's Little Helper (2004) – Directed by Jeff Lieberman. A nine-year old gamer mistakes a costumed killer for a video game version of the Devil.
 * Devour (2005) – Directed by David Winkler. A college student is under the demonic influence of an online game.
 * Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005) - Directed by Rick Bota. Features a MMORPG based on the Hellraiser mythology.
 * Grandma's Boy (2006) – Directed by Nicholaus Goossen. A 35-year-old game tester develops a game in secret only to have someone at work try to steal it.
 * Stay Alive (2006) – Directed by William Brent Bell. Friends start dying just like they did in a video game they all played.
 * Ben X (2007) – Directed by Nic Balthazar. The main character Ben is an autistic boy obsessed with an MMORPG called ArchLord. He plays the game to escape being bullied and has one online friend named Scarlite.  He considers suicide until he meets Scarlite in person.
 * Press Start (2007) – Directed by Ed Glaser. Average suburban youth Zack Nimbus is recruited by an ill-tempered ninja and a tough-as-nails space soldier to save the world from a tyrannical, but comically insecure, sorcerer. References to many classic video games.
 * WarGames: The Dead Code (2008) – Directed by Stuart Gillard. Is a sequel to WarGames.
 * Gamer (2009) – Directed by Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor. A man has to save humanity from being enslaved by an MMO.
 * Assault Girls (2009) – Directed by Mamoru Oshii. Three girls in an MMO team up to win a boss battle.
 * Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) – Directed by Edgar Wright. Is an action comedy film rife with video game references and plot conceit similar to fighting games.
 * Tron: Legacy (2010) – Directed by Joseph Kosinski. Kevin Flynn's son Sam finds his missing father in a new version of the virtual game world and has a similar journey as his father did fighting to get back to reality.
 * Black Heaven (2010) – Directed by Gilles Marchand. An innocent young man becomes enamored with a mysterious girl. He is lured into "Black Hole" – a dark, obscure video game world of avatars with deadly serious intentions in the real world.
 * RPG Metanoia (2010) – Directed by Luis C. Suárez. Is a Philippine animated adventure film in which a MMORPG called Metanoia gets infected by a virus which affects the online world, and a young player goes on a journey  to save the online world and prevent it from taking over the offline world.
 * Best Player (2011) – Directed by Richard Amberg. Is a comedy film about two gamers.
 * Ra.One (2011) – Directed by Anubhav Amant. Is an Indian Bollywood superhero film, where a video game developer creates an unstoppable villain for his son which becomes all too real.
 * .hack//The Movie (2012) – Directed by Hiroshi Matsuyama. Is a Japanese anime film based on .hack, a franchise of anime, video games, novels and manga that debuted in 2002, about a virtual reality MMORPG.
 * Wreck-It Ralph (2012) – Directed by Rich Moore. An arcade game villain who dreams of being a hero decides to leave his game in order to become one. Features cameos by multiple licensed video game characters like Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, Ryu & Bowser.
 * Noobz (2012) – Directed by Blake Freeman. A motley crew of gamers participate in a video game competition.
 * Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie (2014) – Directed by James Rolfe $ Kevin Finn. This film is based on the web series of the same name, it tells us about the Nerd's long journey to discover the secrets of the cartridges buried in the desert of New Mexico of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial video game for the Atari 2600, considered the worst videogame of all time.
 * Pixels (2015) – Directed by Chris Columbus. When aliens misinterpret video-feeds of Arcade video games and console games as a declaration of war, they attack the Earth, using the games as models for their various assaults to fight aliens such as Donkey Kong and Pac-Man.
 * Beta Test (2016) – Directed by Nicholas Gyeney. A gamer discovers that events in a new video game are being mirrored in the real world, and joins forces with the game's protagonist to unravel the conspiracy.
 * The Warriors Gate (2016) – Directed by Matthias Hoene. An avid game is transported to a parallel dimension.
 * Sword Art Online the Movie: Ordinal Scale (2017) – Directed by Tomohiko Itō. Is a Japanese anime film based on Sword Art Online, a novel, manga and anime franchise that debuted in 2002, about a virtual reality MMO, with Ordinal Scale being about an augmented reality MMO.
 * Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) – Directed by Jake Kasdan. Teenagers find a vintage video game version of Jumanji and get sucked into its jungle setting.
 * eHero (2018) – Directed by Joseph Procopio. An up-and-coming video gamer and his team must overcome a fiery gaming superstar, as well as their own battling egos, to win the ultimate video game championship.
 * Good Game: The Beginning (2018) – Directed by Umut Aral. An underdog Esports team that competes in a League of Legends tournament
 * Ready Player One (2018) – Directed by Steven Spielberg. Based on the 2011 novel of the same name, it is set in a dystopian future and is about the search for an easter egg in a virtual reality game called Oasis.
 * Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018) – Directed by Rich Moore & Phil Johnston. Sequel to Wreck-It Ralph, and part of the Wreck-It Ralph franchise.
 * Serenity (2019) – Directed by Steven Knight. Midway through the film, it is revealed that the story is occurring inside a virtual world.
 * The King's Avatar: For the Glory (2019) – Directed by Zhiwei Deng & Juansheng Shi. Animated film based on the Chinese web novel of the same name.
 * Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) – Directed by Jake Kasdan. Sequel to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
 * Fearless (2020) – Directed by Cory Edwards. Two high school seniors try to return three babies to the video game they came from after they mysteriously arrive on Earth.
 * Boss Level (2021) – Directed by Joe Carnahan. A retired soldier is trapped in a never-ending time loop that repeatedly results in his death. It adapts video game tropes in film format.
 * Free Guy (2021) – Directed by Shawn Levy. Guy, a non-player character, becomes aware of his world being a video game called Free City.
 * 8-Bit Christmas (2021) – Directed by Michael Dowse. A father recounts his quest to get a Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s.
 * Choose or Die (2022) – Directed by Toby Meakins. As people play the text-based video game CURS>R, the game begins to interact with the real world.
 * 1Up (2022) – Directed by Kyle Newman. An all-girl team competes in a gaming competition.
 * Fantasy Football (2022) – Directed by Anton Cropper. A girl plays Madden NFL 23 to control her Dad in actual NFL games.
 * Tetris (2023) – Directed by Jon S. Baird. Biotopic movie about the battle led by Henk Rogers for the Tetris rights for its version of Famicom & NES and the upcoming Game Boy during the Tensions of the Cold War between the United States and the U.S.S.R. in late 80's.
 * Gran Turismo (2023) – Directed by Neill Blomkamp. Biopic movie about a Gran Turismo player whose gaming skills won a series of Nissan-sponsored video game competitions to become an actual professional race car driver.