It's easy to fall into the trap of competing against your current competitors for the attention of consumers. Yet, culture has a funny way of changing things up and injecting a new competitor into the mix. Witness the box office slump last weekend. Compared to last year box office ticket sales for the first weekend in October were off 27%, pulling in $80 million, making it the worst October weekend since 1999.
What happened?
Could it be that Halo 3, launched September 26 with first day sales of $178 million, have anything to do with it? Many movie execs think so.
As culture mashes things up, what else should be in your peripheral view?
“‘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.”
This article makes me wonder if we are missing the bigger picture: lack of enticing films in the theater.
When Nintendo released their 100 hour smash hit, "Zelda: Twilight Princess," for the Wii, no one took notice of a box office slump. Critics were silent, still, when PlayStation released their 100 hour “blockbuster,” Bully. Same story their recent release "Ninja Gaiden," on the PS3.
On a side note, I find it amazing that when a company like Microsoft finally comes out with a product that’s in-demand (unlike the Xbox 360) people attribute it to their cunning business sense. When a stable company like Nintendo sees huge success, it goes largely unnoticed. I can't wait for the day that Microsoft releases Halo 4 and we blame the failing economy on a sudden drop in consumer-spending.
Play on kids, play on.
Posted by: Erin | October 16, 2007 at 06:40 PM