Hollywood Sees Worst Box Office Since 1995

It's been a pretty stinkeroo year for movies:

Reviews aside, it’s been a bad year at the movies. By the time 2011 comes to an end, ticket revenues are expected to be down 4.5% compared to 2010. This is despite today’s higher ticket prices: The average movie admission crossed the $8 mark for the first time ever in 2011.

U.S. consumers are known for embracing dumb movies, even when the economy’s in rough shape. But each year, and in 2011 especially, more and more people seem to give the modern-day movie-going experience a thumbs down review.

By last spring, it was clear that film goers were turned off by 3-D movies, or at least by the added cost of 3-D for mediocre films like “The Smurfs” and the latest “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Normally blockbuster season, the summer of 2011 saw the least movie tickets sold since 1997.

The year as a whole has been a downer for the industry. Just before Christmas, the Associated Press reported that movie ticket sales in the U.S. for 2011 were estimated to come in at under 1.3 billion. That would be the smallest figure since 1995, when 1.26 billion tickets were sold. The number of people going to the movies has been on a steady decline since 2002.

The New York Times, meanwhile, points out that movie ticket revenues have dropped 4.5% in 2011, despite the proliferation of higher ticket prices, especially those due to 3-D films, which cost $3 to $5 more per ticket.

I NEVER pay full price for movie tickets. It get my tickets from Costco for about $15 a pair, far less than the $12 per ticket price at the box office. Even with the discounted pricing we're very picky about what we'll go see, so we don't see many movies. We've been disappointed too many times.