Press F to pay... probably around $25 for one movie ticket.
After decades of being looked down upon (often deservingly so), movie adaptations of video games have witnessed a resurgence in popularity in recent years, with both publishers and production companies recognizing the money-making potential in appealing to the nostalgia associated with their biggest franchises.
And in some parts of the world, there's no bigger fish in the sea than Activision's Call of Duty series of first-person shooter games. Quite frankly, it's somewhat surprising that it took this long for production company Paramount Pictures to sign a deal allowing them to bring the series' action and stories to life on the big screen.
Driven By Passion?
As confirmed via press release on September 2, 2025, the movie-making subsidiary of the Paramount Skydance Corporation signed a film deal with Activision to produce their own film adaptation of the record-grossing video game series that has witnessed yearly releases since 2003.
This is far from Paramount's first foray into the gaming space; at least in terms of live-action adaptations, their success has basically remained unmatched. Their films based on video game franchises like Tomb Raider and Sonic the Hedgehog have become massive blockbusters and are considered some of the best of their kind.
"As a lifelong fan of Call of Duty this is truly a dream come true. From the first Allied campaigns in the original Call of Duty, through Modern Warfare and Black Ops, I’ve spent countless hours playing this franchise that I absolutely love."
These are the words of David Allison, Chairman and CEO of Paramount. He further went on to say that the company feels honored to be entrusted with the reigns to such a beloved franchise, and referenced their commercially successful sequel Top Gun: Maverick (2022) to demonstrate how well the studio is equipped to produce military action films. President of Activision Rob Kostich claimed that "the film will honor and expand upon what has made this franchise great in the first place".
Emblematic Of The Industry?
While it still remains to be seen how faithful the movie will be to the games on release, Call of Duty as a franchise lends itself exceptionally well to the film industry, with many games in the franchise sporting exciting story-driven single-player campaigns telling stories of war and loss, betrayal and conspiracies that one could very well imagine working on the big screen.
This distinguishes Call of Duty from many other comparably prevalent video game franchises, whose simpler plots often necessitate taking some creative liberties with the script, potentially alienating some of the core audience. But even then, thanks to gaming becoming more and more mainstream and nostalgia for the medium perpetuating multiple generations, you can get results like The Super Mario Bros. Movie from 2023 becoming one of the highest-grossing movies of all time.
Hollywood thrives on recognizable intellectual property, and with comic books, YA novels, and toy lines already having been heavily mined, video games are the next deep well of familiar worlds and characters that can fuel multi-movie franchises, TV series, and – most importantly for the development studios – merchandise. Cross-promotion may also be a factor, with hype for the upcoming Call of Duty lagging behind the competition. With this in mind, video game movies would appear to be just another fad in the professional film industry, but one for which the end is not in sight yet.
But what do you think? Do you trust Paramount Pictures to make a movie that truly feels like Call of Duty? Or is this bound to be just some quick IP-licensing cash grab? Let us know in the comments below!