Remember when everyone wouldn’t shut up about the box office "slump" in 2005? Well, that story is now a distant memory. The 2006 domestic box office was up 5.5% over 2005 … and that’s a lot of money.
After three straight years of declining returns, the U.S. box office posted not only a percentage increase, but a pretty impressive one, too. 2005 yielded $8.99 billion. 2006? $9.49 billion! (Just for comparison’s sake: 2004’s number was $9.54 billion, while the biggest year to date was 2002 with $1.64 billion!!) Seems that the numbers of tickets sold definitely went up, but a gradual 2.2% increase in ticket prices probably didn’t hurt things all that much.
MPAA chief Dan Glickman shares my opinion that 2007 could be even huger than last year, what with heavy hitters like "Pirates 3," "Shrek 3," "Spider-Man 3," "Bourne 3," "Transformers," "The Simpsons Movie," and "Harry Potter 5" on the horizon … and that’s just part of the summer crop!
For a whole lot more on the MPAA’s year-end fiscal report card, check out this article at The Hollywood Reporter.
