Xbox-exclusive game Halo 2, which was released back in 2004, still has one of the largest production budgets for any video game to this day. It is a game known for being an amazing futuristic science fiction action first-person shooter that also has multiplayer, which was still a new, innovative concept for consoles back then. Halo is still a popular franchise on modern Xbox consoles to this day.
The DCEU (DC Extended Universe) has often been seen unfavorably to its much more successful and popular competitor, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). And its latest movie, Blue Beetle, though released recently to positive reviews on the whole, has not been able to make the wave among fans as was expected. And now, surprisingly, it seems that the Xbox game Halo 2 from 2004 had a bigger production budget than Blue Beetle.
What was the budget of Halo 2 on the Xbox?
Halo 2 had a budget of a whopping 120$ million on the original Xbox console, with 40$ million of that being allocated to developing the game and the remaining 80$ million being used to promote and market the game. Furthermore, of that 80$ million, a lot of it was used for creating absolutely massive billboard ads for the game, as well as traditional ads on television.
This game was also known for creating an alternate reality game, or ARG, called I Love Bees which was launched before Halo 2’s release on the Xbox as a way to promote the game, while also being a game in its own right. It was a puzzle game revealed on the internet and required players to solve increasingly difficult puzzles involving the marketing campaign material for the game, such as intricately built in-universe websites, phone numbers, and live events in the real world.
What was the budget of Blue Beetle?
In comparison to Halo 2 on the Xbox and its 120$ million budget, Blue Beetle cost a much more modest 104$ million production budget. Usually, a film must gross double its production budget to break even financially. That would mean Blue Beetle needs to earn a minimum of 208$ million across the world to recover the invested money and break even.
Blue Beetle is not doing too well at the box office despite the reviews being positive on the whole, as it opened at 43$ million worldwide, with 26$ coming from the domestic box office in the United States. The rest of that amount came from other countries, sixty-four of them. As of now, the film sits well behind Birds of Prey and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, both of whom are widely noted for falling short of expectations.
Furthermore, Blue Beetle is actually the second-lowest opening for a DCEU film, with Wonder Woman 1984 being the only lower-grossing movie, but even that was released during the height of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Currently, Blue Beetle is expected to lose money as it just crossed the 100$ million mark, and it will be the latest DC movie to do so.
Source: Collider, Dualshockers
