5-day sales for 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3' top $775M
— -- Move over Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker.
The record-breaking sales assault of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3— more than $775 million in its first five days in stores — is propelling the video game franchise to heights on par with the biggest entertainment brands of all time, including Harry Potter and Star Wars.
This is the third year in a row that the latest installment of the first-person combat game franchise has set a five-day entertainment sales record, surpassing movies, books and other games.
"It doesn't surprise me that we are beginning to see video games compete directly and break entertainment records that were once held by books and movies," says EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich. That players have to own a $300 Xbox or PlayStation and pay at least $60 for a copy of the game, which is rated for ages 17 and older, "makes the Call of Duty record even more impressive," he says.
The Call of Duty franchise has now surpassed the $6 billion mark, according to game publisher Activision Blizzard, and brisk holiday sales should position the franchise to match global box office totals for top film brands.
Direct comparisons of movies and video games are far from an exact science, but Call of Duty's recent successes suggest that it will continue to climb the pop culture charts.
Since 2009, each new game has outsold the previous one: 2009's Modern Warfare 2 sold 22 million units (at least $1.3 billion), and 2010's Black Ops sold 25 million ($1.5 billion).
Modern Warfare 3's record pace should push the franchise well above $7 billion, bringing it within reach of the total global box office revenue for the Star Wars ($8.3 billion) and Harry Potter films ($8.6 billion). Those figures were adjusted for inflation, based on USA TODAY's analysis of data on BoxOfficeMojo.com.
The game is setting records for online play activity, too. "Audience enthusiasm is even greater than what we expected," said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.
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