Hollywood Raised Prices To Combat Poor Sales

September 2. 2008

Talk about unethical. It was revealed that Hollywood raised movie theater ticket prices to compensate for their declining sales revenues. I don't think it's fair to pass off this problem on the consumer.

If Hollywood showed some originality and stopped ripping off independent screenplay writers and book authors - and quit recycling so many things that have already been done, people would be more inclined to support them.

Hollywood endures summertime blues

Mon Sep 1, 2008 2:34pm EDT - LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The lucrative summer moviegoing season in North America ended on a lackluster note on Monday as ticket sales limped to a new record while attendance slumped to a three-year low.

The U.S. Labor Day holiday weekend, which marks the traditional end of summer, was led for a third round by "Tropic Thunder." Ben Stiller's Hollywood satire earned an estimated $14.3 million during the four-day period. It marks the lowest tally for a Labor Day holiday chart-topper since 2004, when the martial-arts film "Hero" opened to $11.5 million.

The overall picture for summer was not particularly shiny, with a 4 percent rise in the average U.S. ticket price to $7.16 saving the day for the movie industry.

Estimated sales inched up 0.43 percent from last year's record to $4.2 billion, while the number of tickets sold slid 3.5 percent to 586.9 million, according to tracking firm Media By Numbers. The previous low for attendance was in 2005, when 563 million tickets were sold.

http://www.reuters.com