Halo 3 to Generate Revenues of $560 Million In the eve of the Halo 3 launch, the L.A. Times has published an article today explaining that Halo 3 has the potential to generate revenues in excess of $500 million. The game may sell as many as 10 million copies at an average retail price of $70 for a total of $700 million in sales, said Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets. Of that, Microsoft will get about 80%, or $560 million. Although Microsoft will highlight the fact that Halo 3 will enjoy launch sales that surpass those of the opening weekend of Spider-Man 3, several experts explained that the comparison in wrong. So are games really a bigger business than movies? Not quite. Although the revenues from games have grown rapidly in the last few years, they are dwarfed by the sums of money generated by Hollywood blockbusters. Movies generate far more revenue, largely because they have sales outlets other than theaters. Games have one shot -- at retail. As a result, the movie business is projected to hit $84.3 billion globally this year, more than double the $37.5 billion forecast for the game industry, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Much has been made of the increasing similarities between games and movies, but actually their economics remain far apart. When it comes to revenue, "Spider-Man 3" again is expected to smack down "Halo 3." After shattering the opening weekend box-office record, the movie ultimately grossed $890 million worldwide. From those ticket sales, Sony will pocket about $450 million. The title is expected to be a top seller on DVD and in Sony's high-definition Blu-ray format this holiday season. Sony will reap $750 million from the video disc sales, analyst Baine said. Television and video-on-demand rights around the world are expected to generate nearly $170 million. Altogether, Spidey's third outing will probably bring in $1.366 billion in revenue for Sony.