Domestic box office revenue ended on a down note in 2019 at $11.4 billion, falling 4 percent year-over-year. While it also marked the second best on record, movie attendance also took a tumble in North America.
Total theater attendance fell 4.6 percent from 2018 to 1.244 billion last year, the National Association of Theatre Owners disclosed on January 17. That’s ahead of 2017’s recent low of 1.236 billion but still marks a steep drop from 1.301 billion last year.
The average price of a movie ticket rose to $9.37 in the fourth quarter of the year, the trade group representing exhibitors stated. That’s up about 36 cents from the first quarter of the year average.
The average ticket price was $9.16, which reflects all formats and locales stateside. That’s a figure that now tops streaming competitors. The basic plan for Netflix is costing $8.99 monthly and Disney+ is $6.99 monthly.
Disney Dominates
Domestically, seven of the top ten highest grossing films were released by Disney, led by
Avengers: Endgame ($858 million)
The Lion King ($543 million)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ($483 million)
Toy Story 4 ($434 million)
Frozen II ($430 million).
Despite a domestic down year, total global box office revenue hit a record $42.5 billion in 2019, per Comscore.
Nine films released in 2019 crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide.
Avengers: Endgame surpassed 2009’s Avatar for the all-time record, hitting the $2.79 billion mark.
The The Lion King grossed $1.65 billion and Frozen II scored $1.37 billion.
