It's an antiquated strategy game in which two people sit either side of a plastic screen and announce co-ordinates to each other. It may not sound like thrilling material for a blockbuster, but Battleship is the new $200m movie that shows how far 21st-century Hollywood is willing to go in search of its next billion-dollar franchise. Pirates Of The Caribbean, a film based on a theme park ride, may have led the way, but the trend is only growing. Lego: The Movie is set for 2014, and Hasbro, the owner of the Battleship brand, is making an all-out assault on the multiplex.

Hasbro is the world's biggest board game company, and in the past few years, under CEO Brian Goldner, they've expanded well beyond the living-room floor, presiding over the seismic success of the Transformers films before launching big-screen versions of its GI Joe toys. "When I came on board in 2000 the company was severely financially challenged," he says. "Some of the rights to our brands and movies were out there. My goal was to get back a lot of those rights, re-engage with creative stewards and to do it in a different manner. Not to make deals, but to make movies."

And so the route towards Battleship began. Goldner's first move was to create the Transformers franchise, which, over the course of three films, would gross a global total of $2,669,760, 469. Then, in 2008, he struck a deal with Universal to make at least four further Hasbro-inspired movies. At the same time, actor-director Peter Berg, who had a worldwide hit with the 2008 Will Smith superhero comedy Hancock, hatched an idea for a naval film and, in his own words, was itching to make a "super-movie" – a big expensive Michael Bay affair.

It was Berg who had the idea to tie it to the game. "I thought that could be a way to get one of these films made," he says, "and I felt I could find a compelling story around naval combat that wasn't completely bankrupt and void of character. And I was at the right place at the right time, because Hasbro had just struck the deal up with Universal."

Goldner says he was already in talks with Universal to adapt Battleship, and that Berg turning up was "fortuitous". Getting your $200m film financed is considerably easier when half the marketing's already done. "There's no doubt we live in a time where studios are controlled by giant corporations," says Berg. Indeed, Universal is today owned by General Electric, America's sixth biggest firm and its 14th most profitable.

'These big films, the Pirates Of The Caribbeans, are being made because the brand gives the money guys on top a lot of security' – Peter Berg

Battleship

"These corporations are run by business people, not by artists. The days of Charlie Chaplin starting United Artists is a different era. Businessmen think like businessmen, they think about cross-promotion, they think about marketing, they think about brand awareness, they think about things film-makers generally don't think about. These big films, the Pirates Of The Caribbeans, the Iron Mans, are being made because the brand gives the money guys on top a lot of security. And if that makes somebody feel comfortable, I have no problem with that."

Neither did Berg have any problems integrating the product with the production. "I had fun coming up with clever ways of referencing the game, but they were not dictating anything," he says. He then goes on to explain that Goldner set up meetings between him and some gaming psychiatrists who explained the game's "hook". "You have a blind reveal that leads to lethal violence," says Berg. "You become desperate to find your opponent and kill them, and that's a pretty good engine for a movie."

Goldner echoes his pitch: "That blind reveal, it's, 'I don't know everything at the very beginning, and through my moves I unveil my opponent's plans. Over time, I become aware of where they are and my job is to destroy them before they destroy me.'"

That said, however, it seems there is no direct correlation between the game and the film, in which a fleet of US ships is attacked by an armada of alien invaders, known as The Regents. "When you see the movie, I think you'll agree with me," says Goldner. "that the fundamental thread of the brand does propel the storytelling. But we didn't talk about a movie where you and I sit across a table from one another and call out, 'D4 and C5'." Indeed, as well as the rather flimsy link between game and film, there's also a distinct absence of the game's presence in any of the film's marketing. "Yes, but that's what we want," says Goldner. "It's sort of in the background, the audience enjoys the story for what it is."

So what exactly is Hasbro's contribution once a film is in production? "Think of us as film producers, which we are, but also brand owners and enterprise creators," he says, perhaps not elucidating as much as he might hope.

"There is no Hollywood any more, there's just a bunch of banks," is the way John Cusack put it recently, and bed-ins like Universal and Hasbro's certainly emphasise the endgame. There's no getting around the fact that Berg wanted to make a Michael Bay film and pounced on Battleship's supposed legacy to get it funded. So, Universal puts up the cash, Hasbro takes care of the merchandising, and, if it succeeds, everyone's a winner. And neither Berg or Goldner care for cynicism. Goldner, for example, is quite happy to let the money talk.

'This is pure desperation. Everyone in Hollywood knows how important it is that a film is a brand before it hits theaters. Battleship. This degrades cinema' – James Cameron

Battleship

"In every project," he says, "there are people that will cast aspersion to the idea. The same was true of Transformers, it took us five years to get the first one made, there were plenty of people who had no conception of why you'd make a Transformers movie. But $3bn at the box office later, and $1.5bn of merchandise sales, we're moving on to movie four."

Yet even James Cameron, king of the billionaire box-office, had a dig last year. "Now they want to make the Battleship game into a film," he said to Germany's Spiegel.de. "This is pure desperation. Everyone in Hollywood knows how important it is that a film is a brand before it hits theaters ... and there lies the problem. Because, unfortunately, these franchises are becoming more ridiculous. Battleship. This degrades cinema."

Berg isn't too hurt. "I don't know, James Cameron's on top of the world, he says whatever he wants. At first glance, OK, 'Battleship – what the fuck?' It's easy to say that. I personally never felt it. I don't know what was bugging Jim at that moment, but I don't think what he said is relevant, fair or accurate. The idea that these films aren't creatively challenging, or somehow represent the end of creativity in Hollywood, this isn't true. Making a film like this or Pirates Of The Caribbean, there's nothing to go from, you've got to use your imagination. In my opinion they represent more of a creative challenge, in many ways, than adapting a book. So when they work it's a real accomplishment."

There's certainly a lot to be said for brand identification. The cynicism about the association between studio and company is itself giving Battleship press it ordinarily wouldn't have had. This article wouldn't exist otherwise, and, however you view it, it serves as Battleship promotion. And Hasbro is at the epicentre of an endless whirlwind of product. Take Transformers: the toys led to a film, which led to a video game, which featured new characters, which were then made into toys. Spin-offs from spin-offs from spin-offs …

In the case of Battleship, there will be a videogame, more toys and games, online games, mobile games, and licensed merchandise ("Battleship and naval attire has always been perennially fun and cool," enthuses Goldner. "People like that."). The movie itself exists to extend the brand. Yet, oddly, when I ask if Hasbro are going to be tying the film back to the original product in the shops, Goldner becomes somewhat flippant. "There's a new iteration of the core game," he says, "but ... that's like a pebble in the pond. We're doing any number of things. It's about the reinvention of the brand in contemporary terms."

With 1,500 other properties in the Hasbro stable, Battleship is hardly going to be the last brand to be contemporised. Ouija, a supernatural horror film based on the parlour game, is due to shoot next year, Stretch Armstrong is slated for 2014, and, perhaps most telling of all, Ridley Scott is attached to a film of Monopoly. It's the new way of Hollywood and James Cameron had better get used to it.