The Showdown: Will Grand Theft Auto IV Bite Into Iron Man’s Box Office?
Has Tony Stark met his match? With grosses expected to be as high as $360 million in its firstweekalone,Grand Theft Auto IV, the long, long awaited sequel toRock Star Games' classic video game franchise, will no doubt out grossJon Favreau’sIron Man. That is not the showdown alluded to in the headline. These two stunning pop culture goliaths will duke it out for fanboys' dollars and attention spans at the same time, withGTA IVdropping on Xbox and PS3 worldwide onApril 29thandIron ManonMay 2nddomestically, with remaining global territories set both before and after.
One has to wonder how much considerationParamount PicturesandMarvelhave and are giving this worldwide clusterf**k of awesome. Should they be worried? You guys and gals tell them in the comments. Over atGameDaily, an analyst named Mike Hickey, who works forGTA’s distributor, Take-Two, is quoted as giving a big “Duh!” Hickey saysGTA IVcould be bigger thanHalo 3, and we all remember Hollywood execs' eyes watering in awe when Bungie Studios opened up the skies to rake in torrential fanboy moolah back in September…
“We anticipate the video game release ofGTA IVon April 29th could dampen the potential fromIron Man’s theatrical release on May 2nd,” said Hickey. “The domestic box office’s first week of May release schedule includesIron Man, Made of Honor, RedbeltandSon of Rambow. The last significant video game release,Halo 3, generated over $300 million in sales from its first week in the market.Halo 3was released on just one platform, the Xbox 360, and attached nearly 50% of the installed base.
GTA IVwill be released on both the Xbox 360 and PS3, which have both significantly increased their installed bases since the release ofHalo 3. AGTA IV25% attach rate to a combined Xbox 360 and PS3 installed base at its April 29th release would imply 5.8 million units sold or roughly $360 million in retail sales the first week of the game’s release.”
With a budget around $200 million, not counting considerable marketing costs et al,Iron Manis obviously a huge investment, and thankfully everything we’ve seen and heard from the film thus far is aces. But this showdown will definitely be interesting, and perhaps even set precedent for cinema versus video game pissing matches for years to come.
Discuss: Should Paramount and Marvel be worried? Willyoube holed up exploring a vast and violentGTANew York City, too busy watching and rewatchingIron Man, or (I know, it’s crazy) both?
