‘Asteroids’ and ‘Pong’ on the Big Screen? Plans Are in the Works for Movie Adaptations of 10 Atari Properties

Ever wondered how your favorite old-school Atari games would fare on the big screen? Games some of us spent hours playing growing up, like Breakout, Pong, and Asteroids? Well, it looks like we’ll soon find out.

According to Deadline, Atari and Universal Pictures recently signed a deal that would allow Universal to develop a series of Atari game-based films. The games acquired include Asteroids, Yars’ Revenge, Adventure, Pong, Berzerk, Missile Command, Breakout, Millipede, Centipede, and Crystal Castles.

How well these will translate to film remains to be seen, but Universal has already bought its first feature, a screenplay by Carl Hampe and Matt Reilly. Entertainment 360’s Guymon Casady will produce.

How Do Movies Based on Games Typically Fare?

Turning game properties into movies certainly isn’t new, whether it’s a video or board game IP. Already, movie adaptations of video games have included Mortal Kombat, Super Mario Bros., Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Doom, and many more. Board and roleplaying games have gotten their due, too, with films such as Clue and Battleship (and countless versions of Dungeons & Dragons).

As to how these kinds of adaptations fare, well, it depends on the game and the audience. 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider garnered over $274 million worldwide. 1994’s Double Dragon only earned a little over $4 million globally. 2025’s A Minecraft Movie almost broke the $1 billion mark in earnings.

Sometimes these films look fantastic, have an excellent plot, and fans love them. In other cases, game fans feel like the movie is nothing like the game and absolutely hate the big-screen adaptation.

However, many of these games had action and lore behind them, which likely made them a bit easier to adapt. It’s hard to imagine how Universal could turn Breakout into a full-fledged film, considering the game is just a ball hitting a brick wall, especially since the plan is for the films to be action-adventure.

When Will the Atari-Based Movies Come Out?

Since the deal is so new, there’s no official word on when this series of films will come out. However, since the first screenplay seems to be done, it’s possible that an Atari-based movie will be out within the next couple of years.

As for why Atari was chosen, the script by Reilly and Hampe was really the catalyst for the Atari and Universal deal.

Entertainment 360’s Casady explained to Deadline, “The best Atari games dropped you into a world and let your imagination do the rest. Carl and Matt saw an opportunity to take that same spirit and build an original, large-scale adventure around it. From the moment we read the screenplay, we believed there was a great movie here.”

(feature image: Atari)

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