MOVIES ARE DOING A WORLD OF GOOD GLOBAL BOX OFFICE HITS HIGH IN 2006.

Byline: GREG HERNANDEZ

Staff Writer

Going to the movies has become more of a worldwide pastime than ever before with global box office receipts reaching an all-time high of $25.8 billion last year, the Motion Picture Association of America announced Tuesday.

Dan Glickman, MPAA chairman and chief executive officer, said the 11 percent spike in international revenue was due to more business in such countries as Brazil, Russia and South Korea, among others.

"2006, I think, was a bullish year for this business as film audiences around the world reminded us that they love going to the movies," Glickman said during a conference to discuss the organization's annual theatrical market statistics report.

The international gross was nearly three times that of the domestic total of $9.49 billion. Still, that represented a 5.5 percent rebound for the domestic market, which slumped to $8.99 billion in 2005.

Not only were U.S. grosses up, but the 1.45 billion movie tickets sold ended a three-year downward trend that had many questioning the long-term health of the movie exhibition industry in the age of rapidly advancing new technologies.

"People will be going to the movies for as long as we can see into the future," said media analyst Harold Vogel. "But they are going to be spending a little less time in the theaters and a little more time in the home theater. There is a gradual shift. The (movie) industry is trying to figure out how to best capture market share in downloading and Internet and other distribution forms and want to make sure they are participants in those."

Glickman said that at this point, the new technologies in high-tech households don't seem to have a negative impact.

He said that people who own or subscribe to four or more home technologies (i.e. DVD player, video-on-demand or pay-per-view, cable and satellite) were actually more avid moviegoers, seeing an average of three more movies per year than the average 7.6 movies per person in 2006.

"Technologies are emerging at a fast pace, challenging our industry -- filmmakers and exhibitors alike -- to work harder and smarter to keep moviegoers coming back for more, and I think we are well on our way," Glickman said.

Among the other findings in the report:

The number of new movies released reached a record high 607 in 2006, compared with 549 in 2005, an 11 percent increase.

Of that 607 number, 63 films grossed more than $50 million at the box office, a 12.5 percent increase from the previous year. But only six surpassed the $200 million mark and only "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" exceeded the $300 million mark with a domestic gross of $423.3 million.

PG and PG-13 films account for 85 percent of last year's top 20 films including the top five: "Pirates," "Cars," "X-Men: The Last Stand," "Night at the Museum," and "The Da Vinci Code." The only R-rated films in the top 20 were "Borat," and "The Departed."

African-Americans were the most frequent moviegoers, averaging nine movies last year, up from 7.8 in 2005. Hispanics declined from 9.9 movies to eight while Caucasians remained steady at 7.1 compared with seven a year earlier.

The movie studios are spending almost as much money on online and Internet advertising as they are on movie trailers. Online accounted for 3.7 percent in 2006 compared with just four years earlier when it was less than 1 percent of advertising expenditures.

Looking ahead, Glickman sees the current year as a real blockbuster with sequels to "Shrek," "Spider-man," "Harry Potter" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" on tap.

Predicted Glickman: "2007 will be bigger than 2006."

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63 - Number of films released last year that grossed more that $50 million.

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SOURCE: Motion Picture Association of America