When the fifth Grand Theft Auto game is launched by Rockstar Games on September 17, it will have cost a reported $266 million to bring to production–before marketing expenses. That’s a lot of cash.
In fact, adjusted for inflation, only one Hollywood movie has ever cost more: the third installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, which clocked in at more than $300 million in 2007.
The summer season that just ended was a sad one for tentpole movies. Major bombs like R.I.P.D., The Lone Ranger, Turbo, Pacific Rim, and White House Down all cost more than $100 million yet failed at the box office.
But video games are clearly ready to take up the big-budget entertainment mantle. Check out these stats:
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- Budgets of Red Dead Redemption (also a Rockstar game): $80 million-$100 million
- Disney Infinity: $100 million+
- Grand Theft Auto IV: $100 million
- Star Wars: The Old Republic: a rumored $200 million
- Total size of video-game industry in 2013: $67 billion
- Projected size of video-game industry in 2017: $82 billion
- Global movie box office in 2012: $34.7 billion
- Days it took the film Avatar to make $1 billion: 17
- Days it took for Call of Duty: Black Ops II to take in $1 billion: 15
[Image: Rockstar Games]