The success of Grand Theft Auto V will mean more celebration of directors and the immersive worlds they will be allowed to create.
In case youve been taking a media vacation for the past week, you know the release of Grand Theft Auto V was a major cultural event. In its first day, GTA V made an astonishing $800 million, or, to put that into proper perspective, more than the domestic total gross of Avatar. After a few more days, it has gone on to do over one billion dollars worth of business. Reason.com's Nick Gillespie argues, persuasively, that GTA V is a work of art, in fact the defining popular art form of the 21 st century. This leads us to the inevitable question: How will the phenomenal success of GTA V impact film? And will that impact be long lasting or just another flash-in-the-pan trend?
Whether or not one is a gamer, GTA V is a post-postmodern work of art. Can the same be said of White House Down?
This huge win for video games comes at a time of crisis for the summer movie tent pole business model. Hollywood or, to be more precise, the summer blockbuster potential franchise underperformed this summer. And so just as the studios are wrestling with whether or not to put $100 million into more risky ventures, along comes the wildly successful GTA V. How could that not influence the bottom line?
There are reasons why GTA V did so well, and tent poles like RIPD and The Lone Ranger did so badly. It might be easy for studio executives to dismiss the success of GTA V as simply the success of interactive gamification, but GTA V also, truth be told, out-Hollywood-ed Hollywood. Grand Theft Auto V took four years to develop and has a 1,000 page script; it is, whether or not one is a gamer, a post-postmodern work of art. Can the same be said of White House Down?
I suspect the director and the cinematographer will become more important in the big budget action films of the future.
GTA V's biggest impact on the film industry will be felt in the sci-fi genre. Two thoughts: One, Hollywood, because of the estimated 16.5 million GTA units sold, will pay more attention to the action genre of film, but with far more lushly imagined landscapes. Two: Hollywood films, particularly action films, will now have to compete with the dense, strange, action-packed interactive virtual worlds of video games. Since the action genre came of age out of the bilateral tensions that existed between the United States and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, it has never had much competition. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone-types were the stars of the films. I suspect the director and the cinematographer will become more important in the big budget action films of the future.
The pendulum swings. If I were to guess how the competition between the ultra-violent action film genre and video games play out in the future, my guess would be that, at least in the beginning, wildly creative visionaries think Chris Nolan in Inception -- will get more chances to create worlds. Directors, not testosteronal actors, will get above-the-title billing. If a studio can spend $150 million to produce White House Down, clearly they can take a gamble on the iconoclastic, perhaps apocalyptic vision of the next Chris Nolan as a hedge against the competition from GTA VI (which, incidentally, might be in the sci-fi genre).
My first thoughts on considering GTA V and film are about the choose your own adventure franchise that, reportedly, Fox, who promises "cross platform four quadrant franchises" is near to acquiring. This has all the elements of interactivity, action-adventure, open-ended stories and a massive built-in community. How Fox handles the Choose Your Own Adventure franchise, in light of the success of GTA V, will be very, very worth watching. I, for one, cannot wait to see what they do with "Your Code Name is Jonah.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
IPC Expands Brazilian Presence with New Channel Partner CCATech
Industry veterans Carlos Abrah o and Bruno Lopes strengthen local support and expand IPCs prese...
20/08/2026
Zixi Enters Mauritius Market Through Strategic Deployment with MTC Jockey Club
Worlds Oldest Horse Racing Club in the Southern Hemisphere Selects Zixis Softwar...
20/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research assistant professor Tiantian Liu has received a five-year NIAID DP2 award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Di...
20/08/2026
Audiences reveal appetite for multicultural Australia on-screen 20 August 2026
Dr Georgie McClean, Dr Rebecca Huntley (L-R)
By Dr Georgie McClean and Dr Rebec...
20/08/2026
How Mavis Studio Is Expanding Live Production Teaching at Sussex
Brie Clayton August 19, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image displays a student about to mix be...
20/08/2026
Vertical Unscripted Series Legal Queens Captured with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton August 19, 2026
0 Comments
Reality TV veteran Eric Gardner create...
19/08/2026
As the cost of IP nears price parity with traditional SDI, Reynolds argues that ...
19/08/2026
A private 5G bubble was chosen instead of traditional broadcast RF for the race ...
19/08/2026
(L-R) Rafael Manuel and Isabel Sicat attend the Filipi ana premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 23, 2026, in Park Cit...
19/08/2026
Studio owners invited to have their say on rates cuts
The Music Producers Guild (MPG) are inviting UK-based studios to take part in an in-depth survey that ...
19/08/2026
Vintage-inspired desktop interface revealed
Harrison's latest hardware offering sees them head into the world of audio interfaces, delivering a 10-in/12...
19/08/2026
Granular effect remains locked to scale and tempo
Described as your dream granular effect , Minimal Audio's latest creation is capable of turning any s...
19/08/2026
First polyphonic SWAM instrument incoming
Audio Modeling's latest physical-modelling orchestral instrument is just around the corner, and is now availab...
19/08/2026
World Cup Games Generate 84 Billion Minutes Across FOX, Fox Sports 1 and NBCU...
19/08/2026
July brought typical peak-holiday drops in viewership, driven primarily by viewers stepping away from screens and a visible decline in reach across both traditi...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Henry joins BCE as the company accelerates its commercial strategy and expands its international presence across the media, broadcast and technology markets. He...
19/08/2026
iWedia, a leading provider of software solutions for connected TV devices, today announced a major milestone in Android platform optimization with the successfu...
19/08/2026
NTP Technology announces that ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP connectivity with AES67 and RAVENNA capabilities is now available for the brand's world-class audio i...
19/08/2026
Net Insight has been selected to provide its Nimbra platform by the service provider Big Blue Marble, formerly ORS Group, as the core media transport solution f...
19/08/2026
LiveU has supported Coventry City FC and several other top-flight UK football clubs through one of their most demanding live production challenges of the year, ...
19/08/2026
Nature Seekers Documentary Shot with Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF
Brie Clayton August 18, 2026
0 Comments
Filming endangered turtles required camera...
19/08/2026
Neyrinck Brings D-Control Consoles Back to Life on Apple Silicon with D-Control ...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Australia, implemented a comprehensive communications infrastructure that brin...
19/08/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, will spotlight a major leap forward in remote guest con...
19/08/2026
Integrated platform melds media asset management, playout automation and newsroom workflows
EMAM, PlayBox Neo and SNEWS have officially launched Nuvex, a conne...
19/08/2026
Screen Australia releases the Private Investment Toolkit to strengthen screen in...
19/08/2026
Do Aussies truly value local content? Unpacking Screen Currency 2026 with Deirdr...
19/08/2026
There's an early Christmas gift for Bookish fans, as UKTV confirms the re-commission of the hit U&alibi drama, created by and starring Mark Gatiss. Viewers ...
19/08/2026
Wednesday 19 August 2026
Sky gives sports fans the chance to watch multiple liv...
19/08/2026
On Saturday September 5 Katie Taylor will step into the ring for the fight of her life against Flora Pili in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park. A legendary fig...
18/08/2026
SportStream 2026, a free three-day virtual event, will take place September 15-17. One registration provides access to all three days of live programming and on...
18/08/2026
BeckTV will introduce BeckFlow to the European market at IBC2026, demonstrated on the Providius stand (10.F53).
BeckFlow is a web-based schematic documentation...
18/08/2026
Boland Communications will introduce a SMPTE ST 2110 input option for its 4K monitors at IBC2026, along with a new 55-inch super-narrow bezel display for video ...
18/08/2026
Dolby Laboratories and the Seattle Seahawks have announced a partnership integrating Dolby OptiView into the Seahawks' live streaming coverage, making the S...
18/08/2026
For BMG Executive Producer of Sports Production, Graham Taylor, producing live s...
18/08/2026
TMRW Sports has appointed Rufus Hack as President of Golf, a newly created role in which he will lead the company's golf businesses including TGL presented ...
The success of Grand Theft Auto V will mean more celebration of directors and the immersive worlds they will be allowed to create. 
