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from www.chicagotribune.com – The curtain is falling on the worst year for Hollywood in recent memory.
The movie industry sold 1.28 billion tickets in North America in 2011, according to Hollywood.com, the lowest since 1995. That was good for $10.2 billion in box office revenue, down 3.5 percent from last year.
Analysts said the disappointing results came from a combination of a weak economy and expanding home entertainment options.
“Consumers are still trying to repair their balance sheets,” said Miller Tabak analyst David Joyce. “It’s not so much the titles.”
Spiking ticket prices have also played a role, said Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com. Average ticket prices have risen more than 80 percent since 1995, and have jumped to $7.96 from $6.88 in just the past four years.
“With the overpricing that we’ve seen in the past couple years, when that happens in a recession, moviegoers reevaluate,” Dergarabedian said.
In addition, the burgeoning entertainment available online and through services such as Netflix has created “an extraordinarily competitive landscape when it comes to media and technology,” he added.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II” ranked as the highest-grossing film in North America this year, raking in more than $381 million, followed by “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” and “Twilight: Breaking Dawn.”