The target audience for many of the Farrelly brothers’
movies are young adults, predominantly male. The target audience for Bungie
Studios’ Halo 3 game are also young
adults, also predominantly male.
Using this parallel comparison, many film executives are
pointing their fingers at the latest videogame blockbuster as the reason for
one of the weakest recent Hollywood box office weekend performances of the current
millennium.
The movie industry expected The Heartbreak Kid, the film that reunites the Farrelly brother
director duo with Ben Stiller, to make up to $25 million over the opening
weekend. The Heartbreak Kid fell
short by raking in only $14 million across North America.
While some of those who would have been interested in seeing
The Heartbreak Kid chose to stay at
home to play Halo 3, another reason
for the movie’s disappointing opening may be due to the less than warm
reception by critics. Less than one-third of movie critics gave The Heartbreak Kid an overall positive
impression, according to statistics gathered by Rotten
Tomatoes. Furthermore, the movie’s “R” rating may have also forced
younger viewers to stay at home to play their “M” rated videogame.
According to information cited by Advertising
Age, total industry ticket sales were only $80 million for the October
5 weekend, a 27 percent decrease from period last year, making it the industry’s
worst performance for an October weekend since 1999.
Halo 3’s first day
performance rang in
at $170 million, which Microsoft called the "biggest day in US entertainment
history." Within the first week of the launch of Halo 3, consumers went on
to spend over $300
million on the game alone. Halo 3’s
launch also spurred sales of Microsoft’s console, pushing Xbox 360 sales to
double over the same period.