Take-Two boss says Grand Theft Auto games rake in so much money, making a GTA movie isn't even worth the hassle

pcgamer.com:

Two of the biggest bits of videogame news to come along this week were Nintendo's announcement of a live-action Zelda movie, and Rockstar's promise of a proper Grand Theft Auto 6 reveal in December. That might naturally lead your wandering thoughts to wonder when Take-Two Interactive will get around to making the Grand Theft Auto-based Hollywood blockbuster that's such an obvious, almost obligatory, project. 

I'm sorry to say that you probably don't want to hold your breath waiting: Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said during an investors call yesterday that the publisher isn't interested in chasing a big-screen GTA project because it's just not worth the effort.

If Take-Two financed a film or series itself, Zelnick explained, it would probably do pretty well on it financially as long as the show in question was a success—but the odds of that happening aren't great. "[Films and television are] very difficult businesses," Zelnick said. «I've been in them successfully. They're super challenging. They're not what we do. We'd much prefer the risk/reward profile of the business we're in.»

The alternative to that is licensing the Grand Theft Auto property to other people and taking a cut of whatever profits are generated from the films they make. But under those terms the payoff simply wouldn't be worth the bother, even if the film was a big hit. 

To put it in context, he said Mattel's licensing profits on the Barbie movie, which he described as an «extraordinary hit,» are expected to be about $125 million. That's not nothing, but Zelnick said licensing fees Take-Two would earn on a GTA film would be «a fraction» of what it makes on its games (Take-Two reported net revenues of $1.3 billion in its most recent quarter, in case you