MOVIE ATTENDANCE CONTINUES TO FALL

Overall, the box office was down 12 percent from the comparable weekend a year ago when 20th Century Fox’s X-Men: First Class debuted with $55.10 million and Warner Bros.’ The Hangover Part II and Kung Fu Panda 2 performed solidly in their second week with $31.38 million and $23.89 million respectively. During the past eight weeks, the box office has exceed the previous year’s only twice. Nevertheless, last year’s box office saw a terrible first quarter, so that by comparison the year overall looks pretty good. Overall revenue is up 9.75 percent over the same period in 2011, while attendance is up 12.27 percent, according to box-office tracker Paul Dergarabedian. Moreover, next weekend features the opening of two films that have been tracking impressively, Fox’s Prometheus and Paramount/DreamWorks’s Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.