Halo Movie May Happen After All

spizkapa writes "On the back of the story about the Halo competition, Microsoft are reported to have reached a deal with Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox to make a movie based on Halo and Halo-2. Apparently, Microsoft initially wanted $10 million plus 15% of the box office revenue but the deal was struck when the two studios teamed up and offered $5 million and 10% of initial box office revenue. Apparently, the formal announcement will take a further week after creative issues are agreed between the three parties involved."

Comments

Re:an educated guess

[the_weasel]

Don't bet on it.

Outside of Pixar, the actual use of Mac's for animation and effects is still a very small minority.

Box office revenue vs profit

[magarity]

plus 15% of the box office revenue

Notice Microsoft is smart enough to not want a cut of total profits. The history of movies is littered with the broken remains of writers who sold their movie rights for a percentage of the profits only to find that movies make no profits. It's called "Hollywood accounting". If you ever have, or ever know someone who is getting a movie deal, make sure the contract is for a cut of the box office take and not the profits.

Good Negotiating Tactics

[MBraynard]

It's always wise to begin the negotiations by asking for too much that the other side can back away from than risk asking for too little. This was one of the more worthwhile lessons from one of the tasks in the Apprentice Season 3.

This movie is by no means a guaruanteed success. Let's take a look at the last few video game movies (Ignoring Pokemon):

• Resident Evil - Gross: $40m (Domestic), Costs: $53m.
• Resident Evil: Apocolypse - Gross: 51m (Domestic), Costs: $70m.
• Super Mario Brothers - Gross: $21m (Domestic), Costs: $48m.
• Mortal Kombat - Gross: $70m (Domestic) 52m (Overseas), Costs: $?m.
• Mortal Kombat 2- Gross: $36m (Domestic) 15m (Overseas), Costs: $?m.
• Tomb Raider: $131m (Domestic) $143m (Overseas), Costs: $115m (Production only, not marketing).
• House of the Dead - Gross: $10m (Domestic) 4m (Overseas), Costs: $22m.
• Double Dragon - Gross: $2m (Domestic), Costs: $?m.
• Final Fantasy - Gross: $32m (Domestic) 53m (Overseas), Costs: $137m.
• Street Fighter - Gross: $33m (Domestic) $66m (Overseas), Costs: $35m (production only, no marketing).
• Wing Commander - Gross: $12m (Domestic), Costs: $30m (marketing not included).

Ok, I'm sure I missed. But the one that Halo most resembles in terms of popularity and a big budget is Final Fantasy. I really enjoyed that film, and I'm unsure why it did so poorly. But from MS's point of view, they have nothing at risk financially (maybe a lousy movie - and that didn't hurt the popularity of Mario's games). Expect to see trailers for Halo3 at the start of the HAlo Movie.