This has been a big year for the film industry with big box office sales. Following its release, Gran Turismo was neck-and-neck with smash hit Barbie at the box office, but ultimately came out on top.
According to Comscore, the exciting tale of a blue-collar gamer rising to become a racing champion premiered at the box office with $17.3 million, just slightly surpassing Barbie’s domestic earnings of $17.1 million.
Despite earning a decent $36.5 million overseas, Gran Turismo falls significantly behind Barbie overall, a box office sensation that has reached its sixth weekend and is still thriving. Barbie is a star-packed film starring Margot Robbie as the lead, alongside many other notable actors. The movie generated an additional $17.1 million in domestic earnings and a whopping $745.5 million internationally, resulting in a total box office gross of $1.3 billion.
Gran Turismo on the other hand, is dubbed as the, ‘Perfect dream-come-true story’, which centres on a teenage protagonist portrayed by British actor Archie Madekwe, who takes part in a sequence of Nissan contests against other novices and ultimately, expert drivers.
More tickets sales to come?
While it’s not exactly a star-filled film like Barbie, Gran Turismo also stars Stranger Things actor David Harbour, Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings), and Djimon Hounsou (Gladiator), offering a captivating portrayal of driver Jann Mardenborough’s journey to stardom.
Directed by Neill Blomkamp, Gran Turismo was originally set to launch globally on August 11th but switched gears due to the actors’ strike as well as the resulting prohibition on the cast doing any press to promote the film.
In an attempt to switch things around, the studio held two weekends of limited screenings and a few fan previews to generate excitement for the film before it was eventually released on August 25th.
Despite its $17.3 million weekend box office debut, Gran Turismo’s opening was considered to be muted for a movie based on a popular video game. However, the film’s ‘A’ rating on CinemaScore from audiences has given the production team hope that the film will receive a boost in ticket sales in the coming days.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
