In what's easily the most predictable win since the Harlem Globetrotter's nail-biting victory over the Washington Generals on Saturday, the makers of Grand Theft Auto IV have extracted from the wallets of Xbox 360 and PlayStation owners $500 MILLION (!!!) since the game's release last week, giving it the most profitable launch of any product in the history of popular entertainment and making Iron Man's measly $200 million worldwide gross look like one of our paychecks. Just how much is $500 million? Bigger than the GDP of East Timor. Enough to buy 50 million people movie passes, which is more than the number of Americans who went to see Star Wars during its entire initial domestic theatrical run and all subsequent rereleases. Or 33,000 Toyota Corollas (29,000 with the optional stability-control feature, which we highly recommend). Or 25 tickets to Young Frankenstein. It's enough to give $500 million each to all of the people who still think any other form of entertainment will exist by the time GTA V is released.

A $500 Million Week for Grand Theft Auto [NYT]