GLOBAL BOX-OFFICE BOOM SEEN.Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer The popularity of the multiplex See multiplexing. around the globe will drive Hollywood's worldwide growth over the next decade, a forecast released Tuesday showed. The global box office will grow 34 percent between this year and 2007, rising from $18 billion to $24.2 billion, predicted Sherman Oaks-based industry tracker Baskerville Communications Corp. That gain will come partly as the number of screens increases by 22 percent to 132,804 as new multiplexes force the closure of thousands of older single-screen cinemas, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the report. The number of admissions worldwide will rise by a mere 3.4 percent, from 13.96 billion to 14.52 billion, the report stated. In addition, inflation will lead to higher average ticket prices: from $1.29 per movie in 1998 to $1.67 in 2007. ``With a nicer environment for movies, prices can go up,'' said Tim Baskerville, author of the report. The report showed that Japan has the top average ticket at $8.72, followed by Sweden at $7.08 and the United Kingdom at $5.96, while the U.S. price is $4.65 and India's is only 20 cents. The report notes that multiplexing multiplexing, in communication, technique whereby two or more independent messages, or information-bearing signals, are carried by a single common medium, or channel. , which began to gain appeal in foreign markets in the early '90s, already has generated major dividends for Hollywood studios. The global box office has risen 20 percent since 1995, including a 22.4 percent gain in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , which covers the U.S. and Canadian Canadian (kənā`dēən), river, 906 mi (1,458 km) long, rising in NE New Mexico. and flowing E across N Texas and central Oklahoma into the Arkansas River in E Oklahoma. markets. ``Evidence that new multiplex cinemas outside North America are making an impact comes from the Hollywood blockbuster block·bust·er n. 1. Something, such as a film or book, that sustains widespread popularity and achieves enormous sales. 2. A high-explosive bomb used for demolition purposes. 3. `Titanic Titanic (tītăn`ĭk), British liner that sank on the night of Apr. 14–15, 1912, after crashing into an iceberg in the N Atlantic S of Newfoundland. More than 1,500 lives were lost. ,' whose overseas gross ($1.2 billion) was double that of domestic ($600 million),'' the report said. ``These results reverse the old rule of thumb in the 1980s that nearly 60 percent of a Hollywood film's global box office is generated from the domestic market.'' The report predicted the largest box-office growth will come in Europe and Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. , with market share rising from 25.1 percent to 29.5 percent in Europe and from 5.4 percent to 7.2 percent in Latin America. ``There's still a lot of multiplex growth to go in those regions,'' Baskerville said. North America's share of the worldwide gross is predicted to remain the largest but slide from 39.2 percent this year ($7.06 billion) to 36.4 percent in 2007 ($8.74 billion). With the economic crisis slowing new theater construction in Asia, market share there will drop from the current 26.5 percent to 23.8 percent in 2007. |
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