Global Box-Office Sales Rise to $29.9 Billion in 2009 (Update1)
March 10, 2010, 3:55 PM EST(Adds digital financing in sixth paragraph.)
By Michael White
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Global box-office sales increased 7.6 percent to a record $29.9 billion last year, helped by 3-D movies and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”
Ticket sales outside the U.S. and Canada rose 6.3 percent to $19.3 billion, the Motion Picture Association of America said today in an e-mailed statement. U.S. box-office sales increased 10.1 percent to a record $10.6 billion, the MPAA said.
3-D movies boosted U.S. ticket sales last year, accounting for 11 percent of total box-office revenue, up from 2 percent in 2008. Hollywood studios are turning to 3-D films to bolster attendance and ticket sales, underscored by the record box- office success of “Avatar,” James Cameron’s 3-D epic. Cinemas on average charge about $3 more per ticket for a 3-D film.
“Digital presentation and 3-D hold the promise of a dramatic game change in moviemaking and movie-going,” Bob Pisano, president and interim ceo of the MPAA, said in the statement.
The number of digital 3-D screens worldwide more than tripled in 2009 to 8,989, or about 6 percent of screens globally, said the MPAA.
Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, a collaboration by Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and Cinemark Holdings Inc., said today it completed $660 million in funding to equip theaters with digital screens and projectors to show 3-D movies. The money will supply equipment for almost 14,000 screens in the U.S., Mahwah, New Jersey-based DCIP said today in an e-mailed statement.
The average ticket price in the U.S. and Canada rose 4.4 percent to $7.50 last year. The number of films released in domestic theaters decreased 12 percent to 558 in 2009, the first decline since 2003, the MPAA said.
“Transformers,” from Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures, was the top grossing film in the U.S. and Canada last year, taking in $402 million, according to the statement.
“Avatar,” released on Dec. 18, was fifth with $283.6 million in 2009.
--Editors: James Callan, Anthony Palazzo
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael White in Los Angeles at mwhite8@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net.
