Has Tony Stark met his match? With grosses expected to be as high as $360 million in its first week alone, Grand Theft Auto IV, the long, long awaited sequel to Rock Star Games‘ classic video game franchise, will no doubt out gross Jon Favreau’s Iron 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, with GTA IV dropping on Xbox and PS3 worldwide on April 29th and Iron Man on May 2nd domestically, with remaining global territories set both before and after.
One has to wonder how much consideration Paramount Pictures and Marvel have and are giving this worldwide clusterf**k of awesome. Should they be worried? You guys and gals tell them in the comments. Over at GameDaily, an analyst named Mike Hickey, who works for GTA’s distributor, Take-Two, is quoted as giving a big “Duh!” Hickey says GTA IV could be bigger than Halo 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 of GTA IV on April 29th could dampen the potential from Iron Man’s theatrical release on May 2nd,” said Hickey. “The domestic box office’s first week of May release schedule includes Iron Man, Made of Honor, Redbelt and Son of Rambow. The last significant video game release, Halo 3, generated over $300 million in sales from its first week in the market. Halo 3 was released on just one platform, the Xbox 360, and attached nearly 50% of the installed base.
GTA IV will be released on both the Xbox 360 and PS3, which have both significantly increased their installed bases since the release of Halo 3. A GTA IV 25% 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 Man is 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? Will you be holed up exploring a vast and violent GTA New York City, too busy watching and rewatching Iron Man, or (I know, it’s crazy) both?
March 18th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
I Heard this somewhere else a couple of weeks again. I dont know about anyone else, But Ill def be seeing Ironman on the weekend it comes out. Ill have GTAIV too… Infact Ironman will no doubt be a fantastic way of getting out of the house and having some relief from mammoth 10-hour play sessions of GTAIV Ill be havingB-)
March 18th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Well up until this very moment I have never heard of “Iron Manâ€, movie or otherwise. GTA 4 will smash anything that its up against and quite likely will hurt this Iron Man movie you speak of, why? Because everyone will be locked away in their rooms playing GTA 4.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
GTA IV already has my money :)
March 18th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
From the fact that I’ve never heard one person.. ONE PERSON.. say anything about Ironman in real life, I feel that Ironman will greatly underperform. And I’m a film student that goes to school with hundreds of white males in the target demographic as well as being friends with a bunch of other guys that like movies.. no one knows what Ironman is or really give a shit about it. I’m not trying to come down hard on it, I have tremendous respect for Robert Downey Jr. and a bit of admiration for Jon Favreua but how is this movie any different to the general public than Daredevil or any other comic book movie that’s not Spiderman or XMen?
March 19th, 2008 at 2:41 am
Dear Hunter,
“Clusterfuck of awesome” made me moist.
Thank you,
Thumb
March 19th, 2008 at 4:05 am
I think that GTA 4 will make loads of money. Not to sure if it will surpass what Halo 3 did though but will makes loads of money no matter what and might possibly make more money. I dont see however it hurting Ironman in anyway at all. I mean, sure I play the hell out of video games, but I love movies all the same also. I am sure there are plenty people in the US alone that occassionally leave there house from video games just to get out, and what better to do when you do that then to watch a movie? Take your girlfriends or wives everyone lol, if you are as fortunate to have a girlfriend or wife like I do and still spend loads of time on video games. Hell, you know they already think you spend to much time on video games, then take them to a movie. They will probably think you are doing something good by getting away from the video games and at the same time you getting to see an absolutely astonishing movie, what could be better haha……… Anthony
March 19th, 2008 at 4:12 am
I think GTA 4 will make loads of money. I am not sure if it will make more cash then Halo 3 but all in all it will still makes lots of dough. As far as Ironman is concerned though, I dont see it cutting into the movies profits that much or any at all. Ironman will be huge also. Hey, I play loads of video games also, but I can see lots of people always taking breaks to, and what better way to do that then to go to a movie. Take your wives or girlfriends you all, especially if you have one like mine even know I play lots of video games. Think of it like this, you know they are always complaining about the video games you are always playing, just take them to a movie and then they will think you are trying to do “other stuff” and at the same time you get to see an AWESOME movie at the same time haha…… Anthony
Sorry if my comment was double posted by mistake also.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:57 am
I’m going to see Iron Man day and date (who knows, maybe more than once) and avoiding GTA4 like the plague.
This, from my research, makes me a minority on the Internet.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:03 am
I think that the target demographic for these two will have more than $70 to spend on both and therefore not present a problem to one or the other.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:12 am
I’m at a loss for words. This very issue has ran through my head
MANY times since April 29th was set in stone for GTA: IV. Growing
up, my favorite comic book was Iron Man. To this day, Iron Man is
hands down my favorite super hero. On top of this, I have been a
huge fan of the video game industry and the art of the virtual world (which Rockstar is arguably the best at)
So, I have my GTA: IV reserved, which will be picked up directly after
work on the 29th. A few days later, I think I can take a few hours
of time away from the game to check out what could easily be the
best comic book flick to date!
As a side note… I do believe that there is no better way to describe
this situation than “clusterf**k of awesome.”!!! (Priceless, Hunter)
March 19th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Iron Man will do very well, esp with teenage kids whose parents will not buy or let the kids play GTA: IV… plus why not take a break from the game with an awesome movie.
I will be at a showing day it opens, this movie will be huge, I think it may be bigger than Batman for casual fans, since it is not as dark (though Batman will rock too).
March 19th, 2008 at 7:58 am
I can only take so much GTA. On the other hand I can never have enough Iron Man.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Wow, playing a video game and watching a movie. When could someone possibly find the time or be asked to such a thing? And what would your video game think of you cheating on it to go see a movie you filthy slut? For shame.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Mike,
Most teenagers almost always get their hands on GTA, even if their parents can’t get it for them. Of course people can do both, but depending on the media released. One can easily take steam away from the other.
Videogames are a beast especially now a days compared to film, they rake in the millions easily. Hell even Hollywood wants in on the videogame gravy train.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Look– you got at least 3, if not 4 days to play the game before going to see Iron Man (if you count going to see a late show) — plus it’s two hours of your time away from your endless hours being an armchair criminal– I don’t see this being a problem.
If you got 60 clams to plunk down on this game, you’ve got another 10 to drop on Marvel.
March 21st, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Gee will it out gross? Hmmm GTA Retail price Probably about $65 dollars.. Ticket for Iron man? About 12 dollars..
Hmmm what will outgross??
March 23rd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Is anyone else forgetting that the main movie that came out when Halo 3 did was The Heartbreak Kid? No one was really interested in that movie, regardless of when it came out. Also it was in September, not usually a high point in the movie year. They’re will be an audience for both of them.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:19 am
I am going to TEAR it UP in the multiplayer online with GTA IV. Iron WHAT???? Kids that wish they were old enough to buy GTA IV that have no friends will go see that lame ass movie.