Will the Assassin’s Creed Movie Be a Success This Year?

Much has been made of the fact that French video game company Ubisoft won’t release an Assassin’s Creed game this fall. After all, Assassin’s Creed has been their top franchise for many years, selling boatloads of copies and being loved by millions of gamers worldwide.

But after Assassin’s Creed Unity’s poor launch in 2014 and the fact that the latest game in the series, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, did not sell as well as earlier entries, it makes sense for Ubisoft to give the series a break.

The question is, though, whether this will help the upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie do better at the box office this year. And clearly the fact that the movie won’t have to compete with a major Assassin’s Creed game this year will help draw gamer’s attention to director Justin Kurzel’s movie, as they won’t be busy playing another Assassin’s Creed instalment this fall.

But still, we must bear in mind that this is a video game movie, which generally are poorly received by the critics and don’t tend to do so well at the box office either. Because even a high-profile blockbuster like Disney’s Prince of Persia is considered something of a flop even if it succeeded at the box office, mainly due to its high budget. And Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed movie will be made for at least $150 million (£108 million) according to GameSpot, which is a rather big budget for a video game movie, even if the Assassin’s Creed video game franchise is perhaps the best-known in the world.

The Assassins get ready for action in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie…

But despite the “video game movie curse”, perhaps Ubisoft can make this movie a success after all. The French company will retain creative control through its Ubisoft Motion Pictures studio, meaning that this Assassin’s Creed story will surely be true to the game. And let’s not forget the movie’s stellar cast either, which includes actors like Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard. Fassbender was great in the likes of Prometheus, and there’s no doubt that Marion Cotillard is one of Hollywood’s best and most glamorous actresses.

But perhaps the biggest threat for Ubisoft’s movie is the release of the Star Wars spinoff movie Rogue One, which will likely make millions of viewers flock to cinemas, moviegoers who might end up overlooking director Justin Kurzel’s Assassin’s Creed movie no matter how good it actually is.

In the end though, time will tell whether the Assassin’s Creed movie will end up being the first truly great (and successful) video game movie, or end up being another flop in movie history. But here’s hoping that fans of the Assassin’s Creed games (and moviegoers in general too) get to watch a truly enjoyable movie that does this famous video game series justice.