Hollywood Hates The Master Chief

[OobeDoobBenubi]

Movie ticket sales for October are already being recorded as some of the lowest in recent years. And who’s to blame according to the film industry? Why, Master Chief of course. Several film executives and researchers are convinced that many movie-goers stayed home playing the game instead of venturing out to the theater.

“The audience on this game is the 18-to-34 demographic, similar to what you’d see in cinemas,” said Mike Hickey, an analyst at Janco Partners, a Denver research firm, adding that “this could last for several weeks.”

As their prime example, they cite the newest Ben Stiller comedy, The Heartbreak Kid, which cost $60 million and only collected $14 million on its opening weekend. What they don’t mention though is how that same weekend another film, The Game Plan, starring The Rock, collected $2 million more than Heartbreak Kid, even though it had been out for a week. Mark Weinstock, marketing chief at Screen Gems, who released the newest Resident Evil movie, has noted that mediocre reviews and an R rating could have hurt the movie’s sales just as much as Halo.

Honestly, this whole thing isn’t all that surprising to me. Every weekend, me and my friends look at what’s out in theaters to see if there’s anything that worth paying $8 to see. For the past month, the answer has been a resounding, “No,” and then we usually rent an old movie or, yep, play video games. My point is, if people actually want to go to the theater, but can’t find anything worth seeing, I wouldn’t completely fault a video game for poor ticket sales. Let this be a lesson to you, film execs: don’t give Ben Stiller $60 million to make a movie. Just don’t do it.



http://news.filefront.com/film-execs-blame-halo-3-for-poor-movie-ticket-sales/

 

[Figs]

Movie ticket sales for October are already being recorded as some of the lowest in recent years. And who’s to blame according to the film industry? Why, Master Chief of course. Several film executives and researchers are convinced that many movie-goers stayed home playing the game instead of venturing out to the theater.

“The audience on this game is the 18-to-34 demographic, similar to what you’d see in cinemas,” said Mike Hickey, an analyst at Janco Partners, a Denver research firm, adding that “this could last for several weeks.”

As their prime example, they cite the newest Ben Stiller comedy, The Heartbreak Kid, which cost $60 million and only collected $14 million on its opening weekend. What they don’t mention though is how that same weekend another film, The Game Plan, starring The Rock, collected $2 million more than Heartbreak Kid, even though it had been out for a week. Mark Weinstock, marketing chief at Screen Gems, who released the newest Resident Evil movie, has noted that mediocre reviews and an R rating could have hurt the movie’s sales just as much as Halo.

Honestly, this whole thing isn’t all that surprising to me. Every weekend, me and my friends look at what’s out in theaters to see if there’s anything that worth paying $8 to see. For the past month, the answer has been a resounding, “No,” and then we usually rent an old movie or, yep, play video games. My point is, if people actually want to go to the theater, but can’t find anything worth seeing, I wouldn’t completely fault a video game for poor ticket sales. Let this be a lesson to you, film execs: don’t give Ben Stiller $60 million to make a movie. Just don’t do it.



http://news.filefront.com/film-execs-blame-halo-3-for-poor-movie-ticket-sales/

That's the one and only reason right there.

 

[Mr. Socko]

No surprise. It's no longer the summer and for the past few years, the video game industry has been bigger than the film industry, television has picked up too. People would rather stay home than drive to the theaters and pay $10 to see a mediocre movie. I'm in that camp as well. I've seen a total of one movie since this summer has been over.

 

[DorkyFresh]

1 - agreed on the "no good movies out right now" part. it's been kinda dry for a while. that's how it ALWAYS is after the summer season...

2 - if those idiot producers would actually make a Halo movie instead of b***ing about people staying inside to play Halo then they wouldn't be complaining!!! effin' morons!!!

 

[scifiwolf]

I was friggin shocked the other day when I realized I've only seen one new movie in the last two months (3:10 to Yuma). I did go see 1408 the other week, but that was an older movie that was $3 at the student center, so I don't really count that.

Gone Baby Gone or 30 Days of Night might pull me back, along with Lions for Lambs and American Gangster. The only movie that I'm 100% on seeing in theaters before Thanksgiving is Beowulf.

 

[xwolverine2]

master chief owns everone.... this is not news

 

[Tempest19]

There have been a lot of great movies, but not movies that I think many on here would go to: Eastern Promises, Michael Clayton, We Own the Night... so many it's hard to think and next week is: Gone Baby Gone, Into the Wild & Rendition. (Seeing 30 days of night next week when I go home for the weekend (my mom is a vampire fanatic)).

Not a lot of action movies though, just dramas that are all contending to win awards.

 

[bullets]

i thought this thred would be about them not making halo 3 .

 

[Shifty]

January, April, September and October generally have the lowest box office openings of the year. September's biggest opening was $35 million. The other 8 months have had films open with $69 million to $151 million. So its not a good two months for films.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/
That's where the studios stick most of their crappy films. The "Oscar" movies come out in the fall but they're not after that 18-34 demo.

Were the 4 million people playing Halo 3 all going to go see HBK?

 

[Joker]

You know, they could make that Halo movie, and then everyone would win.

 

[3dman27]

i just received a comunique fromthe soldier codenamed master chief authorizing me to say this on his behalf
QUOTE codename:MASTER CHIEF"i respectfully decine to take the blame for the film industry's failings"

 

[Hunter Rider]

There just isn't a lot for the "blow stuff up" crowd right now.

 

[Darthphere]

There just isn't a lot for the "blow stuff up" crowd right now.

The Fall is always the Oscar-bait season.

 

[Ratcrawler]

Yeah, this is the dumbest logic I've heard since Warner Bros. announced they wouldn't make anymore movies with a female lead because they don't make any money. Actually, this decision is dumber.

If I wanna see a movie, I'm not gonna miss out to stay at home and play video games I can play any time.

 

[terry78]

Nothing really starts coming out until the end of this month up until December's end. The last time I actually saw a movie sold out umpteen times was back in August for Rush Hour and Superbad.

 

[L0ngsh0t]

Movie ticket sales for October are already being recorded as some of the lowest in recent years. And who’s to blame according to the film industry? Why, Master Chief of course. Several film executives and researchers are convinced that many movie-goers stayed home playing the game instead of venturing out to the theater.

“The audience on this game is the 18-to-34 demographic, similar to what you’d see in cinemas,” said Mike Hickey, an analyst at Janco Partners, a Denver research firm, adding that “this could last for several weeks.”

As their prime example, they cite the newest Ben Stiller comedy, The Heartbreak Kid, which cost $60 million and only collected $14 million on its opening weekend. What they don’t mention though is how that same weekend another film, The Game Plan, starring The Rock, collected $2 million more than Heartbreak Kid, even though it had been out for a week. Mark Weinstock, marketing chief at Screen Gems, who released the newest Resident Evil movie, has noted that mediocre reviews and an R rating could have hurt the movie’s sales just as much as Halo.

Honestly, this whole thing isn’t all that surprising to me. Every weekend, me and my friends look at what’s out in theaters to see if there’s anything that worth paying $8 to see. For the past month, the answer has been a resounding, “No,” and then we usually rent an old movie or, yep, play video games. My point is, if people actually want to go to the theater, but can’t find anything worth seeing, I wouldn’t completely fault a video game for poor ticket sales. Let this be a lesson to you, film execs: don’t give Ben Stiller $60 million to make a movie. Just don’t do it.



http://news.filefront.com/film-execs-blame-halo-3-for-poor-movie-ticket-sales/

HBK just looks terrible I don't know anyone in their right mind that would want to see that

also school is heating up, at least for me, I would love to go see the Jesse James movie, or Michael Clayton but I just do not have the time

 

[chief103182]

My X-Box 360 died yesterday. Perhaps the studios are taking action.

 

[shapeshifter]

well when the theaters give you squat for entertainment what do you expect. If Batman begins, Iron man or Harry Potter were getting no viewers then yes I would say we have something there.
Master Chief might have some stroke, but you can't rule out a crappy month of movies.
On a side note, Solid Snake would kill master chief before he even knew they were in the same room

 

[Joker]

on the subject of the Heartbreak Kid, am I the only one who heard the title was hoping it would be a movie about Shawn Michaels kicking people in the face for an hour and a half? I'd have seen that...

 

[Michael Corleone]

Unless it's a big blockbuster of a film, its given a limited release. Good films no longer show in a theater long enough to see them. Hollywood is completely out of touch with its audience and can't see past demographics. The only problem is their way of looking at those demographics is completely flawed. When is the last time a movie that won an OSCAR got a wide release from the start? With the exception of a few categories, an OSCAR winning film is often not even seen by the mainstream audience until after its won. I think that says something about the state of Hollywood studios right now. How many films have been released in the past two months that have been shown for a few days and quickly fall off the map? These films all made the cut for an opening because they worked in the focus groups or the execs think its the demographic to shoot for. Hell, the release of Rush Hour 3 shows how detached they are. How many people were really talking about that film in a decent light before hand?

In the end I think the biggest and most obvious problem is in the studios statements about Halo. They're *****ing about this video game cutting into their box office, yet no one has snagged the film and got the ball rolling? Regardless of how you feel about the game, you mean to tell me that the studio is crying about the game, and are not jumping at the chance to finance and get a Halo film up and running? A Halo film apparently is still having problems getting off the ground? Seriously, you have a game that has set the record for the single most profitable entertainment release of any genre in history. Couple that with the fact that you have Peter Jackson, a man responsible for three of the biggest films of the past 10 years, perhaps in film history, and you aren't looking to make this film right now? Fan of the game or not, that seems to me to be just well for lack of a better word ******ed.

Hollywood is slowly imploding on itself and the execs don't know how to react when the reaction isn't predicted by a focus group or the number crunchers.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

So Halo is to blame for the Heartbreak Kid's crappy opening? It's not the fact that it got a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes? Did the studio really think 18-34 year old males wanted to see a Ben Stiller romantic comedy, besides, the "comedy" parts in the preview looked horrible. In fact, nine of the top ten films out now have a rotten rating, you can even take that out to 14 movies and only pick up one more fresh and that's "3:10 to Yuma" which has been out for 6 weeks. So you've got bad movies in the theaters, kids going back to school, also the new TV season has started, plus the baseball playoffs and both college and pro football, but Halo takes all the blame?!?! I think there's many more factors at work.

 

[shapeshifter]

we just need to face facts people. Ben Stiller is just not fun to watch.

 

[Spider-Vader]

Not anymore atleast.
The fact is no one wanted to see this, come May 2nd people will start seeing movies again. Iron Man, baby!

 

[Apollo]

This is why they should make a damn Halo movie.

 

[Milu]

on the subject of the Heartbreak Kid, am I the only one who heard the title was hoping it would be a movie about Shawn Michaels kicking people in the face for an hour and a half? I'd have seen that...

Why hasn't Michaels sued yet, I wonder?