Bob PeryeaIs Cinema's Entertainment Dominance Over?
April 15th 2008 23:59
Interestingly IGN is reporting that EA (that’s Electronic Arts for those who’ve never played Madden orThe Sims) is claiming that major Hollywood executives are worried that the release of Grand Theft Auto IV will be so popular as to prevent people from going to see Iron Man in the cinemas.
I think this really speaks of how far video games have come as a medium of entertainment. To have said, even at the start of the decade that the release of a game would eclipse that of a blockbuster movie would have been ridiculous. Regardless of whether this eventuates, the fact that it’s being discussed as possible speaks volumes.
This kind of discussion, at least for me, when Halo 2 broke the record for fastest selling media product by garnering $125 million in one day , this coming on the heels of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (the previous game to GTA IV) eclipsing other games and the box office. On more recent investigation there was talk that the marketing build up to Halo 2 even distracted from the 2004 Presidential Election in the United States. In 2007 Halo 3 reclaimed that same record (I think the final Harry Potter book took it) by earning $170 million in a day and $300 million in a week. And similarly to what is proposed by EA now, Box Office receipts dropped 27%, although some claimed this was mainly due to the shocking movies at the time (i.e The Heartbreak Kid.
Now there are a couple of issues here that make this a bit different. GTA and Halo are two of the top franchises in the video game world; whereas Iron Man is a new, untested, film franchise. The real test would be to see a Halo or GTA game come up against a Star Wars or Harry Potter. I’m still of the opinion that games don’t quite have the metal to take these types of film’s quite yet. Nonetheless Iron Man still has all the hallmarks of a comic book blockbuster: a popular established character, quality hype and trailers, yet talk remains that GTA may crush it’s intake.
But it seems that movies haven’t been taking games seriously as an emerging major medium of entertainment and dare I say art? Only recently have films like Cloverfield and The Dark Knight started to adopt so called Alternate Reality Games to promote their films outside of traditional means. A method that was popularised by Halo 2. Until now cinema has been at the forefront of entertainment promotions.
After almost a century as the dominant form of entertainment, film has finally found a challenger to the crown, yet Hollywood seems content to continue to rest on its laurels (how’s that for mixed metaphors!). Even if the Iron Man vs GTA doesn’t turn out the way that EA is saying, the possibility, along with precedents from GTA: SA and Halo 3 (in weaker box offices), is a compelling case that cinema isn’t the only kid on the block anymore.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Riccitiello said "The buzz in Hollywood, which I heard from some Hollywood folks...is people are worried whether Iron Man the movie is going to get killed by Grand Theft Auto the game." ... "It feels like what movie moguls might have seen in the 1920s and said: 'Hey, we've got talkies now, where is it going?'" he continued, "I feel like we've stepped through a time window where our games are so compelling and seem so real."
This kind of discussion, at least for me, when Halo 2 broke the record for fastest selling media product by garnering $125 million in one day , this coming on the heels of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (the previous game to GTA IV) eclipsing other games and the box office. On more recent investigation there was talk that the marketing build up to Halo 2 even distracted from the 2004 Presidential Election in the United States. In 2007 Halo 3 reclaimed that same record (I think the final Harry Potter book took it) by earning $170 million in a day and $300 million in a week. And similarly to what is proposed by EA now, Box Office receipts dropped 27%, although some claimed this was mainly due to the shocking movies at the time (i.e The Heartbreak Kid.
Now there are a couple of issues here that make this a bit different. GTA and Halo are two of the top franchises in the video game world; whereas Iron Man is a new, untested, film franchise. The real test would be to see a Halo or GTA game come up against a Star Wars or Harry Potter. I’m still of the opinion that games don’t quite have the metal to take these types of film’s quite yet. Nonetheless Iron Man still has all the hallmarks of a comic book blockbuster: a popular established character, quality hype and trailers, yet talk remains that GTA may crush it’s intake.
But it seems that movies haven’t been taking games seriously as an emerging major medium of entertainment and dare I say art? Only recently have films like Cloverfield and The Dark Knight started to adopt so called Alternate Reality Games to promote their films outside of traditional means. A method that was popularised by Halo 2. Until now cinema has been at the forefront of entertainment promotions.
After almost a century as the dominant form of entertainment, film has finally found a challenger to the crown, yet Hollywood seems content to continue to rest on its laurels (how’s that for mixed metaphors!). Even if the Iron Man vs GTA doesn’t turn out the way that EA is saying, the possibility, along with precedents from GTA: SA and Halo 3 (in weaker box offices), is a compelling case that cinema isn’t the only kid on the block anymore.
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