It's been the worst October for North American movie ticket sales in years, and industry executives are pointing the finger at Master Chief.
Total cinema ticket sales in North America for the weekend of October 5 were a relatively meager $80 million--the worst results for an October weekend since 1999, reports Advertising Age.
Industry executives are wagging the finger at blockbuster game Halo 3, which was released in the US on September 26, made $170 million in its first day on sale, and at the last count, had made its creators Bungie and Microsoft more than $300 million.
But Bungie's gain is apparently the movie theatres' loss. Mike Hickey, an analyst at Janco Partners, commented, "The audience on this game is the 18-to-34 demographic, similar to what you'd see in cinemas. This could last for several weeks."
The Advertising Age article continues to warn that another box office drought may be ahead, as the release of Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV looms in the distance--current ETA the first quarter of 2008.
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