Since when do Ben Stiller movies flop? Well, apparently since “Halo 3″ came around.
Earlier this month, the star of “Zoolander” and “Meet the Fockers” saw his latest film, “The Heartbreak Kid,” debut with sales well below even the industry’s lowest expectations. The Oct. 5th weekend actually proved disappointing for the entire industry: ticket sales were down 27%, their worst Oct. performance since 1999.
Industry experts think they know what went wrong. Advertising Age reports:
Many film executives are convinced audiences stayed home to play Microsoft’s carpal-tunnel classic, “Halo 3,” which went on sale on Sept. 26. The game sold an astonishing $170 million worth of copies on its first day, before going on to sell well over $300 million.
It doesn’t appear the Chief stayed in shrink-wrap for long, either: More than 2.7 million gamers have played “Halo 3″ on Xbox Live — Microsoft’s multiplayer gaming offering — in the first week, representing more than one-third of the 7 million Xbox Live members worldwide. Within the first day of its launch, “Halo 3″ players racked up more than 3.6 million hours of game play, and that number increased to 40 million hours by the end of the first week. For those keeping score, that’s more than 4,500 years of continuous game play.
For Microsoft, it’s no wonder video games, and in particular “Halo 3,” are competing with blockbusters for opening weekends. “We marketed it like a film,” said Josh Goldberg, a “Halo 3″ product manager at Microsoft, adding, “and now, we’re just as big or bigger than film.” He said “Halo 3″ was marketed as an event film in terms of its partnerships, with beverage, automotive, fast feeders and mobile-phone companies all joining up.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve stressed the hype surrounding the “Halo 3″ launch, as well as the extent to which some unlikely groups are utilizing the game’s loyalty among 18-34 males. We’ve even showed you how games are making their way directly into theaters themselves.
As we officially enter the gaming age, films have their work cut out for them. Perhaps they will become more interactive, social events to draw crowds back to cinemas. And as “Halo 3″ is on track to become the #1 selling video game ever, we bet Peter Jackson’s movie project will soon be back in play.
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