As I said before, I didn't say the succes was based on the features I mentioned, I said these features justified the strong connection to the games. The movies would have been great even without these gimmicks and Settlers may be great, too. But in the last case I don't see why they had to strictly stick to the board game, while I see why they called it the Lego movie or Clue.

If they announced a movie inspired by Settlers, it wouldn't be a big deal, but making a movie based on the game seems unimaginative as I don't think it has that much to offer.

So, if someone wants to convince me why using the Settlers name was necessary, you should list the merits of the game and what it has to offer apart from "trading and settling".