Two movie adaptations of different racing video game franchises, Gran Turismo and Need for Speed, opened to nearly identical box office numbers, despite being released nine years apart from each other. Despite taking its name from the video game franchise, Gran Turismo tells the true story of Jann Mardenborough, a young gamer who became a real-life racer based on his gaming skills. Need for Speed, on the other hand, is a fictional story starring Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul as a street racer who embarks on a cross-country journey to avenge his friend.
Although they tell very different stories, Gran Turismo and Need for Speed share very similar source material and, as such, targeted the same demographic of moviegoing audiences. The worldwide box office totals of Gran Turismo and Need for Speed ended up being quite different – one did much better than the other in the long run – but their domestic openings were almost the exact same number. The box office returns for these two movies are eerily similar.
Gran Turismo Had The Same Box Office Opening Amount Compared To Need For Speed
When it hit theaters on August 25, 2023, Gran Turismo scored a domestic opening of $17,410,552 (via Box Office Mojo). When Need for Speed arrived on March 14, 2014, it scored an ever-so-slightly higher domestic opening of $17,844,939 (via Box Office Mojo). It could be considered a strange coincidence that two movies with near-identical subject matter – rubber-burning car movies based on racing video games – had near-identical opening box office numbers. But it’s not that strange considering they went for the exact same audience.
Need For Speed Released 9 Years Earlier, But It Still Made More At The Box Office
Ultimately, Need for Speed earned a worldwide box office haul of $203.3 million, while Gran Turismo made a less impressive $121.6 million against a similar production budget. Gran Turismo was one of several August 2023 releases, along with Blue Beetle and The Last Voyage of the Demeter, that were impacted by the unexpected legs of Barbie and Oppenheimer. Need for Speed, on the other hand, got a boost from Paul’s star power, since it was released just a few months after Breaking Bad ended its historic run.
Gran Turismo’s underperformance is one of many casualties of an industry-wide issue. It was easier to get moviegoers into a theater in 2014 than it is in 2023. Ever since the pandemic, the movie theater industry has been in decline, thanks to ever-increasing ticket prices and studios making their audiences accustomed to waiting for a streaming release. While Need for Speed was considered somewhat of a disappointment by 2014’s box office standards, it would be considered a hit by 2023’s post-COVID standards.
