Watching The Culture Change

As a further sign that going to the movies is no longer the world’s favourite entertainment activity, the latest video game craze “Call of Duty 2” was released just five days ago. In the brief time since then, sales have totaled $550 million. The highest ever 5-day total for a movie was for last year’s “Dark Knight“, which took $204 million in that period.

Estimates are that “Call of Duty 2” will make $780 million by the end of this year alone at $60 a copy.

Game building costs continue to climb, but they are nothing like the costs associated with major motion pictures (James Cameron’s new “Avatar” is said to have cost $500 million to produce). So, higher returns and lower costs: which business would you rather be in?