Movies and TV shows as a whole are in a unique place right now due to the advent of the “streaming age” that we’re in. For many people, they’re fine with NOT going to movie theaters or NOT watching a season of a TV show until it’s on a streaming service, and then they can simply watch it from the comfort of their own home. Also, they don’t have to pay a rather high ticket cost at theaters. So, companies and studios have to work hard to bring in people to their productions, and Roblox has been an answer for trying to do that with the younger generation.
As we’ve established before on this site, about 40% of the Roblox community are kids/teens under 13, which means there are millions upon millions of younger people to appeal to so that a movie or TV show can be as successful as possible. The Los Angeles Times noted this as it talked about the game’s adaptation of the How To Train Your Dragon movie, which recently got a live-action adaptation.
The game itself is what you would expect from a collaboration like this, as it allows players to relive some of the key moments from the movie, including when Hiccup interacts with Toothless and bonds with him for the first time. Or, as the picture above shows, when they had to go and fight a massive dragon together.
One of the points of this game collaboration was to get gamers excited for the movie and make them feel a connection with it that would drive them to theaters. Given that the game has had over 28 million plays since it launched, we’ll say that it worked. Just as important was that the movie had an impressive first weekend at the box office, and so this game could’ve contributed to that.
As many in the LA Times piece noted, the goal is to reach the younger generation where they are. And where they are, ironically, is Roblox, at times. Granted, not EVERY kid or teen plays the game, but when you have about 90 people playing the game every single day? That’s a lot of people worldwide that you can attempt to reach and influence. This is hardly the first movie to do such a thing in this particular gaming space, and that says a lot.
We’ll have to wait and see what movie or TV series jumps into the virtual world next to try and plug their next project.
