Remember all the times we pissed and moaned about the state of movies this year? Well, lookee here:
Film box offices were poised on Wednesday to eclipse 2007′s record $9.68 billion in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales with Hollywood eyeing more than $10 billion this year as audiences flocked to theaters during the recession.
Record year at the domestic box office, right? Ah, but let’s dig a little further:
The 2009 total was aided by a 28 cent increase in ticket prices from the year before to an average $7.46.
For a real comparison, what about tickets sold:
The total number of tickets sold, or admissions, is expected to reach 1.4 billion, up from 1.34 billion in 2008. Still, that figure is not expected to break the record 1.6 billion tickets sold in 2002, said Hollywood.com Box Office.
Barely up from last year, but still significantly down since 2002.
It will be most interesting to see how next fares. Given the reduced number of movies being released and the weak slate of films next summer, there could be a substantial drop in box office. Which oddly could have a beneficial effect on the spec market as various studios feel the heat to boost revenues in 2011 and 2012.
UPDATE: The Wrap with this analysis — fewer films, bigger profits for 2009.
If that does happen, we may see the end of the "tent-pole" year and move back to the good cinema year.
If you have more films that will do $80-$100M before ancillary you don't need as many $400M+ properties.
Especially when these properties are costing upwards of $150M. It does have the effect of having people work longer on a film (BTL) but too many films this year were made in other countries or were CGI.
That's perhaps why so many Americans are out of work in Hollywood. Yet another reason why more smaller modern day films should come back.