Box office was up last year -- and so were admissions after a down 2005 -- but Hollywood's aim to slash production costs weren't realized as the biz saw its first annual rise in the cost of film production in three years.
Hollywood also rolled out more movies than ever, hitting an all-time high of 607 last year.
The Motion Picture Assn. of America unveiled its annual state-of-the-biz stats Tuesday, disclosing that U.S. box office rebounded in 2006, up 5.5%, to finish the year with revenues of $9.49 billion vs. $8.99 billion in 2005.
Admissions were also up, per MPAA data, with 1.45 billion tickets sold in the U.S. in 2006 -- ending a three-year downward trend.
Ticket prices rose 2.2%, with the average American ducat going for $6.55 last year. MPAA brass pointed out that the increase was less than that of the consumer price index...
...Last year's domestic B.O., however, couldn't match the $9.52 billion taken in 2002, when pics in the "Spider-Man," "Lord of the Rings," "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter" franchises dominated the charts. That year also saw a record number of admissions: 1.64 billion...
Hollywood also is putting out more product.
The number of new movies released in 2006 marked another all- time high, with 607 compared to 549 in 2005, an 11% increase.
The 2006 bounce came after a down year that saw the major studios, as well as exhibition chains, contentiously sniping over issues ranging from the impact of DVD releases on theatrical biz to the quality of pics flowing from Hollywood.
MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman Has Good News About Biz in '06
Nevertheless, last year's rebound -- spearheaded by Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," which grossed more than $1 billion worldwide -- saw 63 films gross more than $50 million at the domestic box office, a 12.5% increase from the previous year.
"Pirates" was a big factor in buoying B.O. at the upper echelon of the charts as just six pics grossed more than $200 million domestically last year, vs. eight in 2005.
In 2006, mid-level pics like "The Devil Wears Prada" were the real winners...
...Just two years ago, when B.O. sank in '05, theater owners were panicked as Hollywood searched for ways to boost its bottom line, exploring, among other things, the release of pics on DVD ever closer to their theatrical releases. That issue subsequently subsided, and the up year seemed to calm both sides.
Consistent with 2005 figures, films rated PG-13 comprised the majority of top-grossing films for the industry. PG and PG-13 films accounted for 85% of the top 20 films of 2006.
Just 10% of last year's top 20 films were rated R, and 5% were G-rated...
The MPAA also released on Tuesday, via Nielsen Entertainment/NRG, various demographic studies about the makeup of the American moviegoing public.
African-Americans, according to the study, see the most films per year, averaging nine annually.
Hispanic moviegoers, who had been of keen interest to Hollywood after taking in an average of 9.8 movies in 2005, curbed their attendance habits, hitting an average of eight pics in 2006.
And males under 25 enjoy going to the theater most, according to MPAA data, with 78% of those polled saying they'd rather see a pic in theaters than at home. Among the four demographic quadrants, females over 25 were most likely to prefer home viewing, with 45% of those participating in the study saying they'd rather watch a pic on DVD than in theaters...
Continue to play the Box Office '06 Numbers Game... Also worth reading is this related article: Box office statistics defy naysayers...
Numbers may be up, and that's good, I suppose. But higher revenues don't address the medium's biggest problem--the lack of good quality movies out there, and the creative vacuum left behind as a result...Sigh.
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