MEDIA BATTLE ON TAP
Hollywood may be the glitz-and-glamour part of the entertainment industry, but the video-game business has certainly stolen the all-important dollars from Tinseltown – as next week’s clash of the titans, “Grand Theft Auto IV” and “Iron Man” will show.
Paramount Pictures’ “Iron Man,” expected to be one of the summer season’s blockbuster hits – perhaps grossing $90 million in its first week – may find its early box office take hindered a bit as it goes head-to-head with “GTA.”
Wall Street expects the latest “GTA” offering to sell a record 5.8 million units during the first week – for a take of about $360 million, far outpacing “Iron Man.” In fact, some believe “Iron Man” may do around $350 million over the full course of its theatrical run this spring and summer.
The first-week “GTA” juggernaut just might steal some business from “Iron Man” as both are aimed at the young-male demographic. The theory is that gamers will be so busy playing “GTA” that they will put off seeing “Iron Man” in theaters.
At the same time, a number of posters on the blog SlashFilm said they would welcome the movie break after hours of uninterrupted game play. We’ll see.
But there’s no denying the growing power of first-week video game sales. Microsoft’s “Halo 3,” released last year, sold an estimated 5.2 million copies worth $300 million in its first week.