In recent years, an increasing number of well-known gaming IPs have been adapted into films and series. Examples include Super Mario Bros., Uncharted, Resident Evil, The Last of Us, Gran Turismo, Sonic the Hedgehog, and even the recently announced production of The Legend of Zelda.
Recently, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick was asked at an investor meeting about the possibility of producing a Hollywood blockbuster based on the GTA series. In response, Zelnick expressed that they are not interested in pursuing a GTA film project and consider it not worthwhile at all.
He explained that if Take-Two were to finance a film or series, it might perform well financially if the work itself is successful, but the likelihood of such a scenario happening is not high. At the same time, Zelnick also believes that the film and television industry is a very challenging one, so it's not something they are inclined to pursue.
He also mentioned another option, which is to license the GTA IP to others and receive a certain percentage of profits generated from any films they produce. However, based on these conditions, the returns wouldn't be worthwhile even if the movie is highly popular.
Zelnick provided an additional example, mentioning Mattel, which anticipates earning approximately $125 million in licensing profits through the Barbie movie. Consequently, if a similar approach were taken with GTA, licensing it to a third party for film production, the profit share from a movie would constitute only a "small fraction" of their gaming revenue, with a notable prerequisite: the movie must attain significant success.
It's important to highlight that the recent quarter's net income for GTA was $1.3 billion, underscoring why Take-Two is not particularly keen on pursuing this avenue.
"The hit ratios in the motion picture business are vastly lower than they are in the interactive entertainment business," Zelnick added.
"Our hit ratios for console properties are in the 80% or 90%. The hit ratio for a well-run movie studio is around 30%, which is to say there's a 70% chance that the movie that we license could fail."
As Zelnick emphasized the company's reluctance to enter the film industry due to its challenges, low potential returns, and significant risk of failure, the likelihood of a GTA movie remains highly improbable.
Source: PCGamer
