Rockstar Games Entertainment

Rockstar Games Entertainment was an American motion picture production company founded in 2002 by Rockstar Games co-founders Dan and Sam Houser. It produced motion pictures based on existing Rockstar Games franchises, including Grand Theft Auto, Smuggler's Run, Red Dead, and more.

The company was founded on January 29, 2002 in San Francisco, California by Dan Houser and Sam Houser as the motion picture division of Rockstar Games. It was shut down in July 2011, after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

2002; Founding
Rockstar Games Entertainment was founded on January 29, 2002, during production on Rockstar Games' first feature-length film, Smuggler's Run: The Movie. Dan Houser and Sam Houser, the co-founders of Rockstar Games, founded the company in San Francisco, California. The production of the Smuggler's Run film costed a total of $70-85 million to make.

When Smuggler's Run: The Movie was released in theaters on August 13, 2004, it made a big profit of $338.6 million worldwide, thus becoming Rockstar Games' first ever film to become a box office hit, despite being received mixed reviews critically. This prompted Rockstar Games Entertainment to produce more feature-length motion pictures.

2004-2009; Grand Theft Auto: The Movie, The Red Dead Movie
In November 2004, after the box office performances of Smuggler's Run: The Movie, Rockstar Games Entertainment began production on a film adaptation to Grand Theft Auto, after the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Filming took place in New York City, San Francisco, California and Miami, Florida.

The film was completed and released with the title Grand Theft Auto: The Movie on September 26, 2008 in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures, to negative reviews from critics, but was a box office hit, grossing $493 million worldwide. A sequel was conceived but never happened.

In 2007, during the finalization process of Grand Theft Auto: The Movie, CEO and co-founder Dan Houser had been in talks of a Red Dead film, directly based on Red Dead Revolver. Filming took place in the American Southwest, as well as Mexico and Puerto Rico. Rob Bogue starred as the main character, Red Harlow. It was later finished and released by Paramount Pictures on May 21, 2010, following the PAL release of Red Dead Redemption, the 2010 successor to Red Dead Revolver. It received positive reviews from critics, though was a box office failure, grossing $128.4 million worldwide on its budget of $130 million, thus leading to the eventual shutdown of Rockstar Games Entertainment in July 2011.

2011; Shutdown
During the box office performances of The Red Dead Movie, the box office sales dropped by 19.3%, which caused Paramount Pictures to lose $238 million in box office projections. Rockstar Games Entertainment also dropped a significant amount in their income value, dropping by 4.8%, causing them to lose $102 million. Due to the box office failure of The Red Dead Movie, on July 28, 2011, Rockstar Games Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and was shut down the following day.

2012-present; Aftermath, potential revival
Ever since the shut down of Rockstar Games Entertainment, the production on several other Rockstar Games productions were cancelled amidst the bankruptcy filing by Rockstar. In an interview with Rob Bogue, who played Red Harlow in The Red Dead Movie, he stated that the unfortunate failure of the film was "an immediate disappointment in my career. I was devastated that the film failed so terribly."

Dan Houser and Sam Houser, the founders of the company, had been interviewed in 2013 by news article publishing company The Los Angeles Times. They stated that they "had been in talks of a potential revival of Rockstar Games Entertainment, though under a new name. We haven't gotten around to actually going forward with the revival, as we're still in corporate meddling on trying to get the company back on its wheels and running again." They also stated that the shutdown of Rockstar Games Entertainment was "unneeded, but it had to be done, as the box office performance of The Red Dead Movie was so terrible, we just had to close the company's doors."