D&D Movie/TV Hasbro Getting Out Of The Movie Business

While Hasbro is forging ahead with its own Dungeons & Dragons video game, following the massive success of Baldur's Gate 3, the future of its film involvement is less rosy. In an article with Bloomberg featuring Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks, it was revealed that the company won't be co-financing future movies following the underperformance of Honor Among Thieves and Transformers One.

The focus is moving towards video games. Cocks said to Bloomberg, "We want to reach fans where they want to play, and increasingly that is through digital expressions of their favorite brands".

Sony and Lions Gate will continue to make movies based on Hasbro properties, but Hasbro won't be involved in the financing.

Hasbro Confirms New Unannounced Dungeons & Dragons Video Game in Development

Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks has confirmed that an in-house studio is developing an unannounced Dungeons & Dragons video game. In a feature posted today on Bloomberg News, Cocks stated that Hasbro was actively developing a Dungeons & Dragons video game via one of its in-house studios. No further...

www.enworld.org

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The fact that it dropped just a few weeks after the OGL fiasco certainly didn't help. It meant that a lot of people who might otherwise have given it positive word-of-mouth publicity either boycotted it or were too ticked off at WotC to want to help them.

It definitely didn't help, but I think being sandwiched between John Wick 4 and the Mario movie was probably a bigger factor. John Wick 4 was an easier pick for groups of like age 18-30 people, and Mario was a much, much easier pick for people with kids (even where those kids also liked D&D, it's likely they also like Mario). It's sad because I'd argue DADHAT was a better movie than either of those, but such is life.

 

[payn]

It definitely didn't help, but I think being sandwiched between John Wick 4 and the Mario movie was probably a bigger factor. John Wick 4 was an easier pick for groups of like age 18-30 people, and Mario was a much, much easier pick for people with kids (even where those kids also liked D&D, it's likely they also like Mario). It's sad because I'd argue DADHAT was a better movie than either of those, but such is life.

I kind of waffle between the idea that the Wick/Mario situation might have been a blessing in disguise. Folks were just starting to get back to the theater again and I feel like they wanted movies to see. Being smack in the middle of that and a couple of huge IPs might have driven more traffic to DADHAT than otherwise would have happened. Maybe im wrong?

 

[Superchunk77]

Sad. It's apparently done very well streaming, but it's hard to be a cult classic or home theatre hit in the modern era.

Cough cough......Deadpool and Wolverine

 

[MarkB]

I kind of waffle between the idea that the Wick/Mario situation might have been a blessing in disguise. Folks were just starting to get back to the theater again and I feel like they wanted movies to see. Being smack in the middle of that and a couple of huge IPs might have driven more traffic to DADHAT than otherwise would have happened. Maybe im wrong?

John Wick may have been a bit of a positive, DADHAT pretty much rode the wave in the wake of that movie's peak popularity. But Mario pretty much killed it, its viewing figures tanked at that point.

 

[KYRON45]

I still say a good D&D movie needs to have people playing D&D in it. I will die on this hill...likely cold and alone.
But by all means keep leaving the gaming part out of the script.

 

[Parmandur]

I kind of waffle between the idea that the Wick/Mario situation might have been a blessing in disguise. Folks were just starting to get back to the theater again and I feel like they wanted movies to see. Being smack in the middle of that and a couple of huge IPs might have driven more traffic to DADHAT than otherwise would have happened. Maybe im wrong?

People sontarely go to the theaters these days, an action movie essentially rooted in Gen X/Millenial nostalgia for a beloved 80s experiwnce did not benefit by being between the viggest action movie thr prior several years and the biggest Gen X/Millenial nostalgia experience that was also parent friendly, no.

 

[Superchunk77]

Animated series for Drizzt trilogy and Icewind Dale trilogy. Done.

If they can do it for Arcane, Vox Machina, and Twilight of the Gods, then can do a D&D story.

 

[Gorck]

I still say a good D&D movie needs to have people playing D&D in it. I will die on this hill...likely cold and alone.
But by all means keep leaving the gaming part out of the script.

E.T. Had a scene with the kids playing D&D and I think that movie did okay.

 

[TiQuinn]

Animated series for Drizzt trilogy and Icewind Dale trilogy. Done.

If they can do it for Arcane, Vox Machina, and Twilight of the Gods, then can do a D&D story.

Arcane at least supposedly cost as much, if not more, than a summer tent pole blockbuster.

 

[KYRON45]

E.T. Had a scene with the kids playing D&D and I think that movie did okay.

https://ilzinefilo.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/et-1.jpg?w=1200

I'm thinking more like The Neverending Story or Princess Bride.
D&D is a game. They make their money selling game rules, and game dice, and game accessories. Why not make a movie where people are actually playing the game? You wouldn't have to get into rules minutia....i don't even want that when i'm playing at the table. The action and narration could be the "movie" meanwhile the interaction between the players is the the real story.