The video game industry has surpassed annual revenues compared to the movie business. But now, the film industry is registering wickedly low numbers for October because of one person-Master Chief.
Yes, you heard right. They’re blaming the release of Halo 3 as the primary reason for miniscule figures at movie theaters, according to a report by adage.com. Movie executives are dead certain that when Halo 3 was released on September 26th, the box office figures fell like a lead balloon.
Microsoft is not surprised one bit. Josh Goldberg, a product manager at the Big M said, "We marketed it like a film and now, we’re just as big or bigger than film."
Indeed.
Adage said, "Total industry ticket sales were only $80 million for the Oct. 5 weekend the film opened, a whopping 27% below the same weekend the year before, according to research firm Media by Numbers. That’s the industry’s worst performance for an October weekend since 1999. Overall, domestic receipts are down 6% from last fall."
When you consider that the average price for a movie ticket is around $10, you’re paying about $5 an hour for a two hour movie. Take into consideration that many video games take 20 or more hours to play through and that’s $3 or less per entertainment hour…and you get to stay home and avoid the hassle of driving too.
But one thing must be said that the movie moguls have expertly tried to avoid saying–it’s quite possible that the content coming out of Tinsel Town isn’t good enough to go out to see.
