GTA 6 and Star Wars will be the ultimate Barbenheimer for games and movies, but the winner is already clear
Blog Andrew Joseph 17 May , 2025 0
when Mandalorian and Grogu Released next May 22, 2026, the first new Star Wars movie to be released in six and a half years – and then the first new GTA game in 12 and a half years after the May 26, 2026 Big Theft Automatic VI hit four days after hitting it, the first new GTA game in 12 and a half years – do you think it's a bigger deal? Which will be the same old/same?
At least on the surface, these should be one of the biggest pop culture events of the year – Barbenheimer in 2026. A new Star Wars movie? A new GTA title! ? The Great Theft Vatto!!? Although we can guarantee GTA 6 It will be very big – Yes already Huge – The Mandalorian and his little ones are actually not sure.
It reminds me of the Noni I told when I was a kid that I would have pizza every day if I could. I mean! She's like, no, you end up getting tired of it. But, man, the pizza sounds great every day! Do you know anything? NONI is 100% correct. The pizza is actually really bad every day, which is bad for you, and in the long run it is bad for people who sell pizza because in the end I just want to not think about pizza for a long time.
That's how we're now with Star Wars: every day is pizza, over and over again. But GTA…the expectations for new GTA games have been built for years. In some ways, this expectation is also an important part of the series’ charm. This is something Lucasfilm and Disney can pay attention to very well.
It's not that GTA has a larger cultural footprint than Star Wars. Instead, everyone knows who Darth Vader is (even if mine isn't me; at least she brought me a tie-fitting fighter toy for my third grade). However, the world's GTAs are still targeting more stringent populations. The reason such as GTA can be as much money as making money (more in the SEC) is because people spend much more games than watching movies. It's not because more people are playing it than watching Star Wars. However, it is also necessary to consider the lasting impact of this nature of the game, the time to finish, the replayability, and the interaction compared to the old-fashioned behavior of watching a movie or show and then moving forward.
The Force Awakens in 2015 began the modern era of Star Wars $207.1 billion At the global box office. But Lucasfilm’s super drive motivation has begun to lose some momentum at the end of the sequel trilogy: the last new Star Wars movie, 2019’s Rise of Skywalker, Made $1077777 billionalmost half the power awakening did. Just four years after returning to the big screen, Star Wars has felt common and the numbers have been resolved.
Since the game was released in 2013, this power awakening is actually a better comparison than Skywalker's rise to the last Grand Theft Auto GTA 5. This just allows us to compare the gap between the two properties in the two years, so the money brought by the two properties is cleaner. Even if Rey, Finn and Poe's first adventure (remember them?) is the fifth highest film in the world ever (not adjusted for inflation), its numbers are still pale compared to the GTA 5's figures.
Therefore: Released in September 2013, GTA 5 Made a billion dollars in three days. By May 2014, the game had sold 33 million copies and sales of approximately $1.98 billion (based on the price of $60 per unit, which is an estimate, for example, without considering the sale price). I know – you're thinking, “this is still below the $20.17 billion of “The Force Awakening” and it took nine months to get there.” But while the Force Awakening made all the drama dough within months before leaving the theater, the GTA 5 just grabbed the loot year after year again.
In 2023, Barron's The report said that the GTA 5 has had a box office of more than $8.5 billion since its release in 2013. Last year, the publisher Take-Two reveals In a revenue report, the game continued to sell about 5 million units every three months at the time. Of course, this is partly due to the fact that GTA 5 has been released on third-generation consoles over the years, and the revenue from GTA online has to be considered.
By comparison, the total box office total of all Disney-era Star Wars movies – The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One and Solo – were $593.4 billion. That's some One billion There are fewer dollars than a single game in GTA 5. But another money brought by the Star Wars franchise is hard to track – Blu-ray, digital downloads, streaming, merchandise sales, theme parks, and of course its licensed video games.
The situation is somewhat opaque here, because for example, all Star Wars movies (and TV shows) used on Disney+ are certainly attractive to potential subscribers, but it's also difficult to attach the dollar value to this case. Same as theme park. Yes, you can also rub your elbows with Ersatz Rey while on Galaxy's Edge, and you can also pay over $200 for custom lightsabers to turn off your kids' complaints, but how much does that add? (At the same time, the Star Wars game could be hit or missed; there is a breaker for every Jedi Fallen order to succeed, and it’s a bit tough on it.) In the world, the $300 million people can buy and all Star Wars can buy to get the series’ revenue to the same gross revenue point as the GTA 5? perhaps.
But this is just a Grand Theft Auto game, compared to the entire modern Star Wars series. Of course, GTA's online multiplayer mode brings players back over and over with its new car and interactive activities – it's easy to outweigh the price of the game itself due to its in-game currency. (By the way, why doesn't the GTA have a wider range of merchandise IRL lines? Where are my GTA toys? Why can't I go to the GTA theme park in California, even better, even better FloridaI can ride a great car and run around in my heart before buying a custom Uzi! ? )
Well, actually, maybe that's the real difference between these two franchises – here and now in 2025, this is the best expression and why people are opening their eyes wide when, for example, the Ryan Gosling/Shawn Levy Star Wars movie Starfighter planes officially announced Recently compared to the incredible excitement that everyone can feel GTA 6 News. As mentioned, it has been starting a new GTA game for 13 years. Comparing this with the constant flooding of Star Wars through streaming shows, the never-before-have-be-not-good movies (of course, some good!), and the constant-mentioned movies above, we've been flooded with us since at least 2014, and marketing accumulation at the time. So many Star Wars now.
When I realized that she was right for too many good things, it brought me back to Noni and my pizza dreams – those dashed dreams (dark?). Of course, sometimes toppings are different, sometimes it tastes better than others, but Star Wars is always There Now. Nothing special anymore.
But GTA…GTA brought me to different NONI memories. Rockstar offers new versions of the beloved series only on the most special occasions. It's kind of like lasagna at Christmas! We didn't have lasagna all the time growing up, so when we found out that Noni was making the sauce and Lasagna was in the wild, it was amazing. Meatballs and sausage are sliced, oozing ricotta, basil on top, toasted bread with it – best. It's not just the actual lasagna, but even expected it. Knowing it's coming is almost as good as actually sitting down and eating. This is a rare and special thing, like the new GTA game.
Lockstall has a history Delayed new installment payment In the series – they will not serve wine until its time. The result of this philosophy is that when a new GTA title is finally released, there is a lot of demand, but the time and resources of the game are also clearly invested in the finished version. With all the due respect for the Star Wars sequel trilogy, obviously nothing is about Trilogy Part. (One day, Rian Johnson would say he was about the rise of 180 degrees after his movie.) The audience is not stupid. They can tell the difference between an rush to make a date and a work of art, and the right time for the art can develop and develop according to the time it should be.
Is the GTA series an outlier in the gaming world? certainly. However, as of 2023, Minecraft sold more than 300 million copies (including sales on many of the platforms released), while Tetris sold more than 520 million copies. (GTA 5 is 200 million+, while the Grand Theft Auto franchise has 430 million units sold in total.) Best-selling game. People love video games! Who knows?
It's crazy to think that there is a 16-year gap between Return of the Jedi and the Phantom Threat. It was a relative leisure time for Star Wars (even if the enlarged universe and sales continued), and when George Lucas finally returned to the theater in 1999 with young Ani, Obi-Wan and Qui-gon, there were lines around the blocks everywhere. That was excitement. There is huge expectations for what we all love about, that we haven’t gotten a new part for a long time. Ten years after the Sith's revenge, we all think it's the end of the Star Wars movie, when the Force Awakens reignited the flames of Star Wars. The audience is really happy to go back to that galaxy again.
For 16 years, the gap between the Jedi and the Phantom Threat is not far from the 13 years between the GTA 5 and the GTA 6. Expectation, hope, theorization, theorization, pleasure Know that new games in the series are coming soon. It's almost as important as the game itself.
But, as far as the next Star Wars movie goes, it's a continuation of the TV show… there are three seasons already… there are at least a few spin-offs… Well, I think it's hard for viewers to be excited about it. Of course, this may prove to be a good movie, or even a great movie – I hope it does.
But you have to doubt it. How many people would say to themselves, “Well, I’ll wait until streaming.”