Quote Originally Posted by Smokey
Lets not forget that 2009 total was also aided by a 28 cent increase in ticket prices from the year before to an average $7.46

Movie attendance seem to have stayed flat since 1994 to anywhere between 1.2 to 1.4 billion tickets sold annualy (except in 2002 where it was 1.6 billion).
I think that's pretty resonable especially since I pay $16 a seat to see features at the Imax theater. Smaller theaters with anemic soundsystems and less than state-of-the art projector equipment just don't apeal to me anymore. I'll pay the extra for the few movies I want to see first fun.

Flat attendance since 1994 is quite an achievment considering that that time period. DVD tech, large screen TV, Home Theater sound, cable TV explosion, sattilite TV, movies on demand, Xbox, Playstation, ect. the list goes on-and-on for things that would compete with first run movies at your local theater. 3D tech is one of the few things that the theaters have that the population in general doesn't. It's a big draw for me, and as Avatar proved, a big draw for a lot of others.