Analyst: Iron Man film could suffer from GTA IV release

Jon Favreau's Iron Man adaptation is looking really good, but its ticket sales may suffer from a proverbial digital drive-by. That's according to Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey (via Next-Gen), who warns that the April 29 release of Grand Theft Auto IV could adversely affect the superhero film's May 2 opening the same week. Said Hickey, ""We anticipate the video game release of GTA IV on April 29 could dampen the potential from Iron Man's theatrical release on May 2."

While you might scoff at the notion, remember that Halo 3 was cited as a primary reason for poor box office sales the week after its release last year.