Where would we be without movies? Louis Le Prince changed the course of history when he invented the world’s very first motion picture machine back in the 1880s. Since then, movies and cinema have come a long, long way, to the point where, today, the global film industry is worth a staggering $77 billion.

Of course, the impact of movies is about much more than the number of dollars they generate. The best of them have the power to change lives, inspire people to develop their own creations and show us versions of the world that we didn’t know existed.

Just how influential are movies? In this post, we’ll take a look at how they’ve impacted music, gaming, culture, and more. 

Songs Based on Movies

Music and movies have always gone together. Think of your favorite song, and now imagine what it would have been like without the soundtrack. Jurassic Park may be an exceptional film, but there’s no doubt that it has John Williams’ soundtrack to thank for becoming so iconic.

Normally we talk about how music is used in movies, but there are plenty of instances of movies influencing music too. ‘Walk This Way’ by Aerosmith, ‘Red Angel Dragnet’ by The Clash, and ‘Where Eagles Dare’ by Iron Maiden were all influenced by movies. 

And then there are the smash hit songs that were written for movies, such as ‘My Heart Will Go On’ for Titanic, ‘As Time Goes By’ for Casablanca, or ‘Stayin Alive’ for Saturday Night Fever. 

Movies: Influencing Modern Gaming

There’s a long list of movies that have been based on video games. Tomb Raider, Hitman, Gran Turismo, and Mortal Kombat are just a few of the video game titles to have been given the big-screen treatment.

And, as with movies, there have also been many games made that have been clearly influenced by movies, which is particularly evident on sites that have the latest slot games. Rich Wilde and The Book of Dead, for instance, wouldn’t have been made if Indiana Jones didn’t exist. In other cases, movies were directly given the game treatment; that’s the case with Jurassic Park Gold, one of the most popular slot games of recent years, and Goldeneye, which is based on the James Bond movie of the same name and is regarded as one of the best games of the 1990s.

Books Based on Movies

It’s a bit of a cliche that successful books will eventually be turned into movies. And it’s even more of a cliche that people who love the book version will say, at any and every opportunity, that the book was better. 

What’s less discussed is that there are plenty of books based on movies, too. In fact, all told, there might be just as many as there are movies based on books. Just some of the movies that were eventually turned into books (and often whole series of books) include:

• Alien vs Predator
• Pirates of the Caribbean (fun fact: this was an amusement park ride before becoming a movie)
• James Bond (which was a book first, then movies, and then back to books).
• Blade Runner
• Star Wars
• A Nightmare on Elm Street
• Friday the 13th

If you come across someone who has read any of these books, be sure to adopt a patronizing tone and say oh, you know the movies are so much better, right?

Influencing Modern Language

The best and biggest movies have a reach that goes far beyond mere entertainment. They become part of the public consciousness. If a line from a movie enters the everyday lexicon, then you know it has been successful. Some lines are so famous that they’re known by people who haven’t even seen the movie.

We won’t include which movies the following lines are from because we’re sure that you’ll know them — and we’re also sure that you’ve said them at one point in another in a conversation:

• “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
• “Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
• “May the force be with you.”
• “I’ll be back.”