Viva escapism!
For the first time ever, box office receipts in North America have topped the $10 billion mark – yet another sign that Hollywood is more recession proof than ever.
Tinseltown hit its milestone thanks to a surprisingly strong holiday haul of $278 million over the long Christmas weekend – which beat the previous three-day mark of $261 million set last July 18-20, when The Dark Knight was released.
Leading the charge was Avatar, which followed up a strong opening weekend with an unexpectedly high $75 million haul in its second week of release. The movie has already grossed $617 million worldwide – in just 12 days. Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes opened with$65.4 million while Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel brought in $50.2 million in the U.S. and Canada in its first weekend of release.
Desperate to think about something (anything) other than record deficits and joblessness, Americans have flocked to movie theaters in droves this year.
Already a record year from a revenue standpoint, it remains to be seen whether 2009 will also set new attendance marks. That will depend on ticket inflation data, which won’t be released until after the first weekend in January (Hollywood’s fiscal year counts revenue from the first weekend of each new year with the previous year’s total).
In 2008, the average ticket price increased by 4.4% to $7.18.
By 2 cents December 28, 2009 at 12:10 pm
It’s one of the few affordable forms of entertainment left. And the escapism is a plus these days.