Moviemakers blame Halo 3 for lackluster box office @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on October 16, 2007

News: The world's tiniest violin plays for movie studio bosses.

Advertising Age is reporting that many movie executives are blaming the release of Halo 3 and its first week sales of $300 million for the lackluster box office performance in the first week of October. According to the article, the box office receipts for the first week of October totaled $80 million, or a 27% drop off from the same week a year before.

Let that sink in for a minute before I tear this theory to shreds.

Halo 3 is a blockbuster, there's no denying that. Gamers also had a plethora of other high profile titles to play with in the month as BioShock, Warhawk and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption are still sitting atop the sales charts.

And what did the moviemakers counter this fearsome foursome with? Opening on October 5th was the Ben Stiller comedy The Heartbreak Kid and teen adventure The Seeker. Holdovers from previous weeks were kiddie flick The Game Plan and video adaptation Resident Evil: Extinction. None of those movies were able to crack 30% on Rotten Tomatoes T-Meter (although I enjoyed Extinction quite a bit).

So let's break this down. You've got four of the biggest games of the year going against four movies that 2 out of every 3 critics hated. Halo 3 had nothing to do with this.

Note to moviemakers: Expect your box office numbers to go up this weekend because 30 Days of Night looks amazing. Make more movies that can generate that kind of excitement and you'll get people into the theater.

source: Advertising Age