2007 box office admissions flat, prices up

Total U.S. and Canadian movie theater receipts surged 5.4% in 2007, to $9.63 billion, thanks to a 5% increase in average ticket prices, according to annual data released Wednesday by the Motion Picture Assn. of America.

The total number of tickets sold last year was flat compared to 2006, at 1.4 billion.

Total international receipts were also up last year, to $17.1 billion, compared to $16.3 billion in 2006. But MPAA officials said they could not determine precisely how much of the increase was due to greater ticket sales and how much to inflated foreign currencies due to the weakness of the U.S. dollar.

“My judgment is that there was a real increase [in ticket sales] but how much I’m not sure,” MPAA CEO Dan Glickman said on a conference call with reporters to discuss the numbers.

Along with higher revenues, the MPAA-member studios are struggled with higher costs last year.

The average investment in negative costs for the 179 films released theatrically by MPAA studios in 2007 was $70.8 million, up from $65.8 million the previous year.

Those figures do not include any outside financing that went into many of those productions, which would have pushed the total negative costs even higher.

“We’re looking for ways to factor in that outside financing better in future years but we’re not able to do it yet,” Glickman said.

Marketing costs also rose last year, to $35.9 million per film, on average, compared to $34.5 million in 2006.

The studios also saw a big surge in the average investment at their subsidiary and affiliate labels and production companies in 2007. The average negative cost jump to $49.2 million, compared to $30.7 million in 2006. Marketing costs were also up sharply, to $25.7 million per picture, compared to $17.8 million the previous year.

The study found a high correlation between frequent movie goers and households with substantial investments in home entertainment technology.

According to the report, the 14% of movie goers who also own or subscribe to five or more home entertainment device or service included in the study, average 11.4 trips to the theater each year, compared to an average of 7.9 per year for all movie goers. Those with the least investment in home entertainment also attend the fewest movies in theaters, averaging 7.4 per year.

The MPAA will be releasing a more detailed, demographic breakdown of movie attendance within the next few weeks.