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Prince of Persia film could generate $2.7 billion-plus - Ubisoft

By Tom Magrino, GameSpotPosted Nov 12, 2009 1:37 pm PT

CEO Yves Guillemot and Jake Gyllenhaal-led action film franchise may generate more than Pirates of the Caribbean; French publisher investing more in game development.

Earlier this month, Disney spooled out the first trailer for Jerry Bruckheimer's latest big-budget blockbuster, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The film has an estimated $150 million budget and features visual effects to rival Bruckheimer's previous highly lucrative collaboration with Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean.

That Jake Gyllenhaal is going places.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot believes Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time's visual impression won't be the only thing to rival Pirates of the Caribbean. Speaking at the BMO Capital Markets 17th Annual Digital Entertainment Conference today, Guillemot said that the Jake Gyllenhaal-led action film franchise could be more lucrative than Disney's Pirates trilogy.

"What we hear is that it could be maybe stronger than Pirates, which did $2.7 billion dollars," Guillemot said as part of his presentation to analysts and investors. "I think this will really help our brand to become a major brand in this industry." Directed by Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Donnie Brasco), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is due out on May 28 in the US and May 27 in the UK.

The statement appears to indicate that the Prince of Persia film franchise will continue after The Sands of Time. The first film, which is cowritten by series creator Jordan Mechner, appears as if it will follow the events of Ubisoft's game of the same name fairly closely. As indicated in the trailer (below), it centers on the Prince's acquisition of a magical dagger, which can be used to alter time. Before Ubisoft rebooted the franchise with 2008's Prince of Persia, the Sands of Time game trilogy continued with 2004's Warrior Within and 2005's The Two Thrones.

With Assassin's Creed II due out next week, Guillemot also addressed Ubisoft's new approach to developing its numerous created franchises. According to the French executive, Ubisoft intends to channel the same amount of resources into its other franchises as it has into Assassin's Creed II and the oft-delayed Splinter Cell: Conviction, which is due for the Xbox 360 and PC on February 23.

"We've decided to invest more on each of our franchises," he said. "It started with Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell. We did put more energy, more people to create master products. We think that will help those games become big events when they come. All the 10 brands that we have will have more emphasis. We will release less new brands, but more emphasis on the brands that we've already created."

Notably, Assassin's Creed II producer Sebastien Puel said in May that more than 450 people are at work on Assassin's Creed II, with 75 percent of the original team having returned to work on the sequel. Putting that figure into context, Puel went on to note that the Assassin's Creed II team "is about three times the size of the team of the first game."

127 Comments

  • unbentonslaught

    Posted Feb 16, 2010 2:45 pm PT

    looks like total action and no story...acting was pretty bad too. BUT!!! It looked pretty good.

  • Habast

    Posted Jan 3, 2010 4:15 pm PT

    Really? Know what I saw?

    The best movie to come along in a long time... At LEAST on par with PotC one and leagues above it's two sequels.

  • JediLegacy

    Posted Dec 10, 2009 9:12 pm PT

    All I see in the trailer is:

    -Sand
    -CGI Michael Bay Status
    -More Sand
    -Poor Acting
    -Lots of Sand
    -Pathetic One-liners
    -And Yes, Sand

    Take out the PotC? Good luck, mate, I'll be saving my money,,.

  • AFWorm

    Posted Nov 16, 2009 4:31 pm PT

    The fact that PotC attracted all age groups and made about $650 mil, makes me seriously doubt that a movie that doesn't seem like a film for the whole family will make even half that. I'm sure it'll make number one at the box office for the first couple weeks, but then rapidly drop off.

    Plus, with white-as-all-get-out Jake playing a Persian, I don't know if I can even suspend reality that far.

  • SeriousSean

    Posted Nov 16, 2009 2:28 pm PT

    @ Zerosumgame

    Yes, but I can manage to forgive them as long as I get really spiffy video games.

  • Zerosumgame

    Posted Nov 16, 2009 10:03 am PT

    this is exactly why the rich can be super-rich. They keep pumping out bs for avg consumer to "consume" while they just sipping wine in their living room.

  • vdarkfall999

    Posted Nov 16, 2009 8:42 am PT

    The title of this article is misleading. When Guillemot says that "it could maybe be stronger than Pirates, which did $2.7 billion" he's referring to the whole Pirates trilogy, not just the first film. The first pirates film banked about $650 million worldwide. However, I doubt that the PoP film will make more than $200-$300 million. PoTC had great reviews to back it and positive word-of-mouth generated by Johnny Depp's performance to keep people lining up for it. PoP's advertising will definitely get people in the theater for the first few weekends, but I can't see it having the staying power of Pirates.

  • neuroboy

    Posted Nov 16, 2009 5:00 am PT

    Looks way better than PotC, which was thoroughly over-rated twaddle. I just completed PoP on the 360 - a great game, and thoroughly under-rated. Will definitely be playing it again, and looking forward to a sequel.

  • Gooshnads

    Posted Nov 16, 2009 4:51 am PT

    i think Gillenhall can pull off the ... smugness of the prince of the first game....
    but he just doesnt have the look to fit the prince (maybe the first one but for all who've played the second and third, they may know what i mean) looking at the trailer
    it DOES look good and i mean there's the whole "dark" prince aspect in it as well
    i hope there's the Dahaka =P

  • singhellotaku

    Posted Nov 16, 2009 4:01 am PT

    It'll probably do more than most game movies but 3.7 billion seems like wishful thinking to me, I'm guessing about 70 million

  • welshy023

    Posted Nov 16, 2009 3:28 am PT

    Prince of Persia isn't a gore game. PG-13 is exactly the rating for what the first game was, if possibly a bit too much. The gore and tone of the second was really unnecessary and try-hard. It won't excede the level of the 2nd POTC film, which was by far the most violent of the 3.

  • -JediPaul-

    Posted Nov 16, 2009 1:12 am PT

    Wow! Prince of Persia movie? That's great! Oh, and the effects is to great, no doubt it's to costly!

  • lifegivith

    Posted Nov 15, 2009 9:03 pm PT

    looks pretty epic.

  • Strategygamer22

    Posted Nov 15, 2009 8:25 pm PT

    I was expecting the movie to be a gorefest, but I guess Disney wouldn't do that. Don't know how they'll cover the second a third games with a PG-13 rating.

  • geomyr

    Posted Nov 15, 2009 6:17 pm PT

    i already saw the trailer of the prince of Persia movie i m not surprise that the film could generate billions of dollars with all the special effects and other stuff like that i must admit that this film could generate more money since the pirates of the Caribbean film.

  • Xyandar

    Posted Nov 15, 2009 5:31 pm PT

    Im definitely going to see it, but im not anticipated to see it or anything.. Cant see it reaching 2.7 billion lol.. But who knows.

  • desanvium

    Posted Nov 15, 2009 3:21 pm PT

    don't count on it

  • phantom1593

    Posted Nov 15, 2009 1:58 pm PT

    disney has its name on it so ====> not that much blood/violence like in the game

  • KillerWabbit23

    Posted Nov 15, 2009 9:34 am PT

    I'll be seeing it. Just not with huge expectations, but it could be fun! =)

  • Ardus

    Posted Nov 15, 2009 8:13 am PT

    I have to admit the trailer exceeded all of my expectations, though they weren't very high.

    It still looks too Hollywood though, so much so that I was getting flashbacks of the 15 minutes of Transformers 2 I saw before walking out on it.

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