Grand Theft Auto (1972 film)

**Grand Theft Auto** is a 1972 Cowellan action-adventure film directed by George D.W. Walken, produced by Leslie Benzies and developed by Dan and Sam Houser.

## Plot

Small-time criminal Claude (Mark Ramsey) is betrayed and shot by his girlfriend Catalina (Alesha MacPhail) during a bank heist outside Liberty City. Claude is arrested but escapes during his transfer to prison when members of the Colombian Cartel ambush his transport to abduct another prisoner. During his escape, Claude befriends explosives expert and fellow convict 8-Ball (Donald Joseph), who shelters Claude and introduces him to the Leone Mafia family for work. Claude assists the Mafia with various operations, including winning a gang war against a local group of Triads, earning him the respect of Don Salvatore Leone (Caleb Jackson). After learning that the Cartel are creating and selling a new street drug called SPANK to fund their expansion into Liberty City, Salvatore orders Claude to destroy their floating drug lab. Claude accomplishes this with 8-Ball's help.

Salvatore later instructs Claude to deal with a minor problem, but his trophy wife Maria (Virginia Clarke), who took a liking to Claude, reveals it to be a set-up. Maria claims that she lied to Salvatore about having an affair with Claude to make him jealous, and now Salvatore wants to murder him. Claude escapes to Staunton Island with Maria and her friend Asuka Kasen (Lianna Pai). After assassinating Salvatore to cut ties with the Mafia, Claude begins working for the Yakuza, led by Asuka and her brother Kenji (Les J.N. Mau). During this time, he also provides assistance to corrupt police inspector Ray Machowski (Robert Loggia), whom he eventually helps flee the city, and influential businessman Donald Love (Kyle MacLachlan). Donald hires Claude to assassinate Kenji under the guise of a Cartel attack to start a gang war that will allow Donald to obtain construction sites for his businesses. After the job's success, Claude carries out another task for Donald that leads him to encounter Catalina, now the leader of the Cartel, at a construction site. However, Catalina escapes after betraying and shooting her partner, Miguel (David Calloway).

Asuka blames the Cartel for Kenji's death and seizes the construction site. The Yakuza capture the wounded Miguel and torture him for information on Cartel operations in the city, allowing Claude to strike against them and hinder the Cartel. Enraged, Catalina murders both Asuka and Miguel and kidnaps Maria, demanding $500,000 for her release. Claude meets with her to pay the ransom, but Catalina deceives him again and traps him. Claude escapes, rescues Maria, and destroys the helicopter Catalina attempts to flee in, killing her. As Claude and Maria leave the scene, the latter begins to complain about the kidnapping, but is silenced by a gunshot.

## Production

### Development

In February 1965, Leslie Benzies, Dan Houser & Sam Houser had the idea for the film series of Grand Theft Auto. They talked about the idea of the film while having lunch.

By March 1965, Dan and Sam Houser developed the Grand Theft Auto film.

### Writing

By January to April 1966, George D.W. Walken, Leslie Benzies, Dan Houser and his brother Sam Houser wrote a script for the film Grand Theft Auto. The character was supposed to be Andrew Toht, but was changed to Claude.

The protagonist is unnamed in the film, and his name is not officially revealed as Claude until his appearance in *Grand Theft Auto III: San Andreas* (1985). He is a silent protagonist, never speaking throughout his appearances; the team decided upon this primarily because it "did not seem like a major issue", due to the other challenges faced during development, and also partly to allow players to identify with the character, as he would be who the players want him to be. The developers did not have "any one single inspiration" for Claude; they liked the idea of a "strong, silent killer, who would be juxtaposed with all of these neurotic and verbose mobsters".

### Filming

The principal photography began on February 18, 1970 and wrapped on May 19, 1970, Mark Ramsey was the role of Claude.

In 1970, Metro-Astro Productions confirmed their intentions to make a film out of the novel for the price of $80,000, with aims to have the film released on Halloween in 1971. On September 23, 1970, George D.W. Walken was officially announced as the film's producer, in part because studio executives were impressed with his interview and because he was known for bringing his films in under budget.

There were specific milestones planned for *Grand Theft Auto*, none of which were met:

* **Development begins**: 4 February 1965
* **Script**: 3 January 1966
* **Filming**: 18 February 1970
* **End of production**: 19 May 1970

## Release

### Theatrical

The world premiere for *Grand Theft Auto* took place at Solar Cinemas in Emerald City on February 14, 1972, almost three months after the planned release date of Christmas Day in 1971, with profits from the premiere donated to The Boys Club of New York. Before the film premiered, the film had already made $15 million from advance rentals from over 400 theaters. The following day, the film opened in five theatres in Emerald City (Metro State I, II and II, Benedict Cinemas and Marvel Cinemas). Next was the Bendigo Cinemas in Logrant on March 14, and then Sapphire Bay at two theatres on February 21. *Grand Theft Auto* was released on February 26, 1972 throughout the rest of the Cowell reaching 316 cinemas six days later.

## Reception

### Box office

*Grand Theft Auto* was a blockbuster, breaking many box office records to become the highest grossing film of 1972. The film's opening day gross from five theaters was $57,829 with ticket prices increased from $3 to $3.50. Prices in Emerald City increased further at the weekend to $4, and the number of showings increased from four times a day to seven times a day. The film grossed $61,615 in Logrant for the weekend and $240,780 in Emerald City, for an opening weekend gross of $302,395. The film grossed $454,000 for the week in Emerald City and $115,000 in Logrant for a first week gross of $568,800, which made it number one at the Cowellan box office for the week. In its first five days of national release, it grossed $6.8 million, taking its gross up to $7,397,164. A week later its gross had reached $17,291,705 with the one week gross of around $10 million being an industry record. It grossed another $8.7 million by March 9 to take its gross to $26,000,815. After 18 weeks at number one in Cowell, the film had grossed $101 million, the fastest film to reach that milestone. Some news articles at the time proclaimed it was the first film to gross $100 million in Emerald City Capital Territory, but such accounts are erroneous; this record belongs to *The Sound of Music*, released in 1965. It remained at number one in the US for another five weeks to bring its total to 23 consecutive weeks at number one before being unseated by *Butterflies Are Free* for one week before becoming number one for another three weeks.

The film eventually earned $81.5 million in theatrical rentals in the Cowell during its initial release, increasing its earnings to $85.7 million through a reissue on April 7, 1975, and including a special edition re-release on August 30, 1997, it ultimately earned an equivalent exhibition gross of $135 million, with a production cost of $6.5 million. It displaced *Gone with the Wind* to claim the record as the top rental's earner, a position it would retain until the release of *Jaws* in 1975. The film repeated its native success overseas, earning in total an unprecedented $142 million in worldwide theatrical rentals, to become the highest net earner. Profits were so high for *Grand Theft Auto* that earnings for Kennedy, Inc., which owned Metro-Astro Productions, jumped from 77 cents per share to $3.30 a share for the year, according to a *Kemser Times* article, dated December 13, 1972. Re-released eight more times in special edition since 1997, it has grossed between $250 million and $291 million in worldwide box office receipts, and adjusted for ticket price inflation in Northeast Province, ranks among the top 25 highest-grossing films.