Box office receipts were up in 2006 nearing $1.5 billion, which was a substantial rise over a sagging result for 2005. However, the plus was offset by the fact that studio production costs were higher than the preceeding three years, according to Variety.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) released the 2006 figures showing a overall U.S. box office rise of 5.5%. Some of those numbers reflect a ticket price increase of about 2.2%, which the MPAA boasted was less than the nation’s consumer price index (CPI).
The U.S. was not the only country to see a significant rise in movie attendance and ticket sales in 2006. Countries like Germany, South Korea, Brazil and Russia helped to boost worldwide box office by as much as 14%.
The down side to the news were the figures for production costs, which the MPAA stated were up about 3.4% over 2005’s figures.
Variety reports that despite the increase in overall production costs, the average cost of marketing movies dropped in 2006 by as much as 4%. Studios having realized the benefits of the internet as a marketing tool were able to shave costs from advertising down to about $34.5 million, whereas during 2005 it cost them $36.1 million. Using the internet gave studios more bang for their buck showing a 2.6% rise in its usage over 2005 with about 3.7% of their overall marketing budgets used for internet advertising.
The MPAA report did reveal one surprise. Totally unexpected were findings that households with the hi-tech home theaters had a higher rate of outside theater attendance than those without those features in their homes.
