They think it's easy money.

Yes, because someone else already paid to get all the branding and name recognition. They're just drafting off it, via higher reward with lower risk than an un-branded new thing.

And the numbers prove it.

In which case, the article here doesn't really have a point. Why try to make good video game movies in the first place?

Surely a video game movie getting rave reviews would sell even more tickets. And you have to imagine the people making a movie hope viewers like it.

You'd think so, but Michael Bay's Transformers franchise is widely despised by critics and fans (and rightly so), and also makes hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars worldwide.

When you have audacity, nostalgia and guaranteed merchandising potential you don't need the movie to be good, unfortunately.

I have to think the people who keep coming back for one installment after another don't despise the movies. And in fact I remember being dragged to Transformers II by an ex who really wanted to see it because she enjoyed the first one.

quite a few in the filmsphere and in decision making positions in holywood itself still care significantly about the art of film, independantly from the money thats brought in.

Because the world and characters some games develop is occasionally interesting and compelling?

Like the rumored Tetris movie?

I can't seem to find anything more recent than June 2016 on the so-called Tetris Trilogy (though I admit to not looking very hard), but this fake Tetris movie trailer from 2012 is something that I think could actually be interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhwGEa7507g