Avatar box office way behind 2009’s top video game
During its first week of release, James Cameron’s Avatar took in $US212 million at the US box office, and $US377 million worldwide (helping US cinema's to a record Christmas total).
That’s a tidy haul, yet doesn’t come close to the year’s top-selling video game, Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
During its first five days on sale during November, the latest instalment in this shoot-em-up series took in $US550 million at retail.
Top of the Hollywood heap is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which grossed $US394 million over its first five days.
The gap between games and movies is even more extreme when you consider that the latest Call of Duty cost $US40 million to US50 million to produce - or up to $US200 million once production and distribution costs are factored in, according to an LA Times estimate.
That’s likely an all-time-record for a video game, but still not a shade on Avatar’s budget, which remains secret but is pegged by The New York Times at “close to $US500 million”.
Avatar’s length, and the relatively modest number of 3D theatres, has restricted its first-week take, and its total haul will eventually include DVD sales, TV showings, legal downloads and other sundries.
But Activision and its partners are also harvesting extra lettuce from online multiplay and add-on packs.
One measure of its might: Activision (NAS: ATVI) - now the largest games company following its acquisition of Blizzard from Vivendi - today has a market cap of $US14.8 billion (easily eclipsing any Hollywood studio) and annual sales of around $US3 billion.
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Comments and questions5
I'm sorry Chris - but your above article is flawed, in terms of gross money earned.
First of all - the price of a 3D Movie ticket is around $18.50 (well it is in Hamilton) & the cost of the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is advertised for $119.99 - therefore - taking the cost per unit into account - the Avatar 3D movie wins hands down??
This is a rather large oversight Chris.
[There's probably a dozen Bollywood efforts that beat either in terms of individual sales. But I'm not talking revenue per unit or unit sales but total revenue - CK]
What are you talking about?
It's not about the per unit cost or units sold
The figures are the figures. How much money these cost and how much they have made.
Sucks to live in Hamilton because in Alberta the price is still regular price for 3D ($12.50) movies and the Price came to $68 (including $5 g.s.t.).
The difference really comes down to how much the movie/game made to how much it costed the company to make hense the total net income. The game still wins.
are best ignored because they're aimed at children and have no place in the real world of entertainment at all.
[Au contraire. The industry's success is built on the fact that the Space Invaders generation never stopped playing. Today those teens are 30 and 40-something video game nuts. CK]
Just as motorsport is relegated to the back pages of specialist mags because the TV boffins have no idea how big it is in NZ.
The wheel's turned and there's still a huge number of people who have no idea they're about to be turned upside down and crushed by it all.
[Um, OK. CK]
I agree with Chris about the age group thing - I am a 37 year old professional who started off playing the table top Space Invaders when i was a kid and never looked back. I regularly buy 1-2 games a month at $80+ a pop.
Using platforms like Steam where you download the games (legally) , the Gaming industry makes delivery of the extra game content easy - and at around $10-30 for extra content, it is easy on the pocket but follows the same business model as Itunes - lots of small sales but LOTS of them.
Also,with games and add on content, once it is made, very easy to deliver and production costs drop right away.
My main point is that its all about the margin not the sales - in my profession we call Sales (gross) Vanity and Gross Profit / Margin - Sanity.
Its all about how much the product costs to make and deliver - no point making trillions of dollars in sales when costs of distribution and production strip all profit out.
That is where games delivered online will acclipse movies.
And don't get me started on how well Wii has done by expanding games into non-traditional users...
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