Though about $15 million to $20 million in television marketing will be spent promoting the game, the majority will be footed by marketing partners such as Pepsi, Burger King and Pontiac that want to ride the “Halo 3' hype. Bonuses to key developers and artists will probably add $25 million to the tab, Pachter said. Development costs will probably be just above $30 million, given an elite team of 300 full-time artists and programmers working for three years on the game at Bungie, the internal Microsoft studio that created the games, said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. The total cost to Microsoft for “Halo 3': a little more than $60 million. In addition, stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst and filmmaker Sam Raimi are believed to get portions of the box-office tally. Producing and marketing the DVDs cost an additional $100 million, and Sony spent tens of millions on such expenses as overhead, profit participation and residual payments.

In terms of cost, “Spider-Man 3' weighed in at about $400 million to make and release in 107 countries.

So how does “Spider-Man’s” Peter Parker stack up against Master Chief, the hero protagonist of the “Halo” franchise? “Halo” and “Spider-Man” are considered major blockbusters that help make up for the losers and smaller bets.

And the typical Hollywood studio generates overall margins in the 15% neighborhood, said Derek Baine, senior analyst at SNL Kagan.

Of course, not all movies and games see this type of return. Microsoft Corp., which publishes “Halo 3,” has the potential to see a profit margin of 90% or more for the game, according to analysts. For Sony Corp., the estimated profit margin for “Spider-Man 3' is 46%, according to entertainment research firm SNL Kagan. What makes the video game business tantalizing is the potential profits.

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