GTA 6 may be coming soon, but a GTA movie seems unlikely to quickly follow unless Take-Two changes its mind

While Rockstar has started up the GTA 6 hype train this week, some new comments from Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick seem to suggest the likelihood of us getting a film or TV adaptation based on the series any time soon are pretty slim.

Following Nintendo’s big announcement that a live action Legend of Zelda movie is in the works, Zelnick was asked about the prospect of franchises like GTA and Red Dead Redemption making their way into the wider entertainment sphere during Wednesday’s earnings call (thanks, VGC). Judging by his response, Rockstar and Take-Two are taking a cautious attitude towards opportunities that could bring either to the big screen or little screen.

The exec characterised the approach the latter has adopted with regards to TV or film adaptation of its properties as “very, very selective, and very careful”, even if it has greenlit Borderlands and BioShock movies.

“If we were willing to use the company’s balance sheet to make a movie or a television show,” Zelnick said, “then in the event of great success we would benefit from it. But we’re not prepared to use the company’s balance sheet that way, because the risk/reward profile is unappealing to us.”

The CEO went on to compare financial risks involved in the games industry to the film and TV business, alluding to his past jobs at 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. “Our hit ratios for console properties here are (around) 80 or 90 percent,” he said, “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.

“And so, in success, the number in terms of the benefit to our bottom line is, it’s not de minimis, it’s not zero, but it’s not really material to what we do around here. And in failure, we run the risk of compromising the underlying intellectual property, so it’s a high bar.”

So, unless Strauss is willing to compromise his commitment to not compromising IP, it looks like that GTA film we’re all vaguely convinced might actually be a thing we want to see might not happen any time soon. Got it? Good.

If you’re planning on spreading every day until December thinking about GTA 6 make sure to check out our feature wishlist for it.