Leading the News: Movie Industry Saw Ticket Sales Climb 11% in Year
Movie-ticket sales in the U.S. totaled about $9.3 billion last year, up at least 11% from 2001, thanks to hits such as "Spider-Man," "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and 20 other movies that each generated more than $100 million at the box office.</br></br>While Hollywood is crowing it had another "record" year, admissions rose a more modest 8% when adjusted for ticket-price inflation. Moreover, the higher ticket sales and attendance figures were due to the proliferation of expensively promoted "franchise" movies and sequels, masking what otherwise would have been a bleak year for most studios.</br></br>The estimated 11% increase in ticket sales comes from Exhibitor Relations Co., a closely held firm that analyzes and distributes box-office data it receives from the studios.</br></br>The explosion in sales of digital videodiscs during 2002 will help mitigate any miscalculations the studios made in coming up with more original movies. DVD sales increased 50% to $8.1 billion in 2002, according to Adams Media Research, as consumers showed a willingness to buy low-price discs at mass retailers rather than rent movies. With the new format gaining favor, sales of VHS format videos, which peaked in 1996 at $6 billion, fell to $4.3 billion.</br></br>The rise in ticket sales and attendance also was helped by theater operators increasingly packing 15-plus-screen cinemas with multiple showings of the same movie on opening weekend. This resulted in large opening-weekend box office for movies, but in many cases also led to a steep drop in ticket sales in the following weeks as the next big-event movie rolled into theaters.