Worldwide box-office receipts dropped 16% in the first quarter of 2011 due to a post-Avatar effect in which movie houses were unable to compete at the same level as last year, according to new research from IHS Screen Digest.

Attendance in the movies reached stellar proportions on a global scale more than a year ago in the first quarter of 2010, the result of holdover from one of the top-grossing titles of all time in Avatar as well as other high profile 3D titles such as Alice in Wonderland and How to Train Your Dragon.

The first quarter of 2011, however, recorded revenue of just $4.05 billion, compared to $4.83 billion during the same period in 2010, equating to a loss of $779.4 million year-on-year. Of the amount represented by the lost revenue, 70.5 percent, or $549 million, was because of a lower box-office take in the US market.

While the United States was the largest market to experience a drop of such scale, contracting 20.7% during the period in question, major movie markets all over the world likewise saw a drop in revenue. Among the sampled territories, only the markets of Argentina and Brazil in Latin America recorded any growth in the first quarter of 2011.

“No one had expected the losses to be so steep,” commented Charlotte Jones, IHS Screen Digest senior analyst, “but exacerbating the absence of a blockbuster movie like Avatar was the relatively lackluster quality and range of major titles in the first quarter this year compared to the slate of theatrical releases from the same time in 2010.”



A major trend in the first quarter was the decline in the amount of business from 3D movies. 3D revenue accounted for only 14.6% of the total US box office in the first quarter of 2011, compared to 22.1% share in the same period in 2010. Total box-office revenue from 3D reached $324.9 million in the first three months of the year, just half of the $625.2 million recorded in the same period last year.

“The strong 3D receipts from last year were also due in part to Avatar and that movie’s compelling visual effects. This time, the lack of a strong 3D product at the US box office was a major factor in ticket-price deflation, with average prices dropping 0.3%, because fewer 3D tickets were being sold,” Jones comments.

Story filed 14.06.11