Another record set.

Activision's cash machine is still running smooth.

In what's becoming a November tradition, the latest Call of Duty game is once again the biggest entertainment launch of the year. Activision announced Friday that Black Ops II earned over $500 million in its first 24 hours.

"With first day sales of over half a billion dollars worldwide, we believe Call of Duty is the biggest entertainment launch of the year for the fourth year in a row," said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. "Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise have exceeded worldwide theatrical box office receipts for 'Harry Potter' and 'Star Wars,' the two most successful movie franchises of all time."

The $500 million mark exceeds the launch day haul of last year's record-setter, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which raked in $400 million. Comparatively, the top-earning movie this year, The Avengers, took in $200 million in its opening weekend.

Black Ops has become a very solid performing part of the Call of Duty franchise. The 2010 installment of the game sold an estimated 25 million units, according to Wedbush. That's about 2 million more than last year's Modern Warfare 3.
Black Ops II is the second game this month to set the entertainment launch day mark for 2012. Microsoft held that bragging right for a brief time with the launch of Halo 4, which took in $220 million in its first 24 hours. (Life to date sales of that franchise, by the way, stand at just under $3.4 billion — a number Call of Duty has long since eclipsed.)