Sony Declares Uncharted A Franchise

Creating a successful franchise is never an easy feat in Hollywood. A lot of films that are meant to be franchise-starters never quite get to that point, either because of underwhelming box office numbers, negative critical reception, or a nice mixture of both. It appears that this is doubly true of large-scale adaptations of video games. Most video game movies don't exactly fare well with critics (per Rotten Tomatoes), and it seems as if Hollywood hasn't quite figured out how to bring these spectacles that have entranced gamers to the big screen with similar success.

"Uncharted," which is based on the beloved Sony game franchise of the same name, is the latest attempt by Hollywood to find the secret formula to success with such films. Starring Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg, the movie focuses on the early days of Nathan Drake (Holland), a fortune hunter who seeks a lost treasure found by explorer Ferdinand Magellan. While "Uncharted" has fallen victim to negative critical reception to the tune of a 40% score on Rotten Tomatoes, Sony has seen fit to declare the film the beginning of a franchise after only one weekend in release.

Per Deadline, Sony has declared that the live-action adaptation of "Uncharted" is now the beginning of a proper movie franchise. Sony CEO Tom Rothman declared this in a company-wide email, citing the film's $100+ million opening at the worldwide box office and its 90% audience score over on Rotten Tomatoes. "This marks a great victory for every single division of the company, as the film was our first major production entirely shut down by the advent of Covid, yet we persevered to complete a picture the audience loves and marketed and distributed it with strategic verve worldwide, despite the pandemic," Rothman said.

Rothman also declared that the success of the film was yet further proof that streaming services are not the end of big theatrical releases, also citing their success with "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" and the huge box office hit "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which also stars Tom Holland. Of course, there's no telling how "Uncharted" will perform at the box office in the coming weeks, as it's always an unpredictable market, but if it holds well, then the film could indeed be another big franchise for not only Sony but Holland as well.