ATTENDANCE UP, TICKET PRICES UP — WHY NOT REVENUE, TOO?

Attendance at movie theaters may be up 9.2 percent from last year, but that percentage is not reflected in ticket-sales revenue of theater chains, reports have indicated. That anomaly left industry watchers scratching their heads even more on Friday when the National Association of Theatre Owners disclosed that the average price of a movie ticket rose 1.1 percent over the past six months (a tiny percentage largely due to the fact that there have been fewer 3D movies, carrying significant surcharges, released this year). Still the question remained unanswered: if ticket prices overall were slightly higher than they were during the same period a year ago and there were more people buying them, why wasn’t all that reflected in theater revenue — which is up only 6.7 percent?