VIDEO GAMES GAIN REVENUE EDGE OVER MOVIES

On November 12th, the results were in: The Latest James Bond movie, “Skyfall,” had taken in a stunning $87 million over the weekend, an all-time record — for movies.

That same day, the video game, “Halo,” took in $220 million. Not over a weekend, but in one day. There was some press about that, but nothing compared to the stories about Skyfall. A few days later, the latest version of the game “Call of Duty” was released and had sales of $500 million. That was also in one day. It’s doubtful that lifetime sales of Skyfall will ever reach that total. We’re big James Bond fans, but there is another story here.

If you look at the numbers – and believe us –Hollywoodalways looks at the numbers, the story is who has the numbers. Along with the enormous sales of these top video game franchises versus a top movie franchise, one might look at the huge differences in the details of the story. A movie has big salary, production and distribution costs; a video game has nowhere near those kinds of upfront costs and almost no distribution cost – it can be downloaded to the customer.

And then there’s the question of value – entertainment value. A movie is enjoyed for a couple of hours. And yes, it was fun, but the video game will be played for hundreds of hours. So the point of all this seems pretty obvious: there’s been a change in the weather, as the song goes.

Comments are closed.