In the recent months there has been some debate regarding whether or not the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 was going to affect the ticket sales for the Iron Man film during it’s opening weekend.

Adam Sessler’s take on the issue is that the companies responsible for the film are simply trying to place blame on GTA in an attempt to anticipate poor success at the box office and that if the movie is good, people will see it regardless.

While I agree that people will indeed see the film if they want to see it bad enough, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a huge chunk of people will not wait beyond opening weekend, or even wait for it to arrive in other forms of distribution before seeing it. I don’t think that the power of immersion in gaming should not be ignored here. Though I do happen to have little doubt that Iron Man will probably be a pretty terrible film, I do think that it’s ticket sales will be affected by the release of games such as GTA 4. At least during opening weekend.

I’ve only owned the game for a few days now, but every chance I get outside of work, I’m more than likely playing the game. The story is involving enough, and provides such a visceral experience, that I can’t help but think that most gamers would rather spend the next several weeks playing the game to death.

I feel this sort of thing should be a very real concern for the film industry. Gaming has matured to the point where the only barrier between it and the mainstream should be the cost of investment. I’m also of the opinion that a movie based on a comic book series is trying to reach an audience that will also largely consist of gamers, and is therefore at an extreme disadvantage when going up against a game of GTA 4’s caliber.

It’s possible I’m wrong and that most normal people have no trouble taking a few hours to leave their house, go all of the way to the theater, watch their little movie and go all of the way home rather than simply getting the most out of their previous investment first. Still, I doubt it highly.

Sure, gaming isn’t quite “next generation Hollywood”, but there are enough die hard (and even casual) gamers out there that will easily align themselves with gaming when given the option on a saturday night.

Only time will tell.