Record year for boxoffice: $9.62 billion
By Carl DiOrio
January 2, 2008

A wobbly fall boxoffice threw a scare into executives but the holidays proved bountiful and those in the industry can keep popping those New Year's champagne corks: 2007 has posted a revenue record and the best admissions tally since 2004.

The latest boxoffice year, concluded Tuesday, featured an estimated $9.62 billion in industry grosses, according to data tracker Nielsen EDI. That represents a 4% improvement compared with 2002, the previous best year for boxoffice revenue.

Ticket prices rose 2% in '07, to an average of $6.70. EDI will release full and final annual boxoffice tallies today. In the meantime, the year ended on a triumph, as the five-day New Year's frame's $268 million in industrywide grosses represents the highest-grossing boxoffice session ever.

The long Christmas weekend ranks as the third-best-frame ever, with $250.3 million. That ranked just behind '07's four-day Memorial Day session, which rung up $255.3 million. Year-over-year, '07 notched a 5% revenue uptick compared with 2006, according to EDI data. The holiday season was up 2%, following a 4% downtick marked by the fall boxoffice.

The Hollywood Reporter

Six major studios top $1 billion
Paramount leads the billionaires' club
By PAMELA MCCLINTOCK
January 2, 2008

For the first time since 1998, Paramount ended the year No. 1 in market share, a victory made possible because it owns DreamWorks and distributes its movies. In another milestone, six majors crossed the $1 billion mark at the domestic box office in the same year, besting the previous mark of four studios.

The sixth studio crossed the threshold at the last minute: With the coin earned over the weekend from "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and "Aliens vs. Predator -- Requiem," 20th Century Fox passed $1 billion and joined Par, Warner Bros., Disney, Sony and Universal. After Par, estimates show 2007 rankings as follows: Warner Bros. ($1.41 billion), Disney ($1.36 billion), Sony ($1.24 billion), Universal ($1.08 billion) and Fox ($1.01 billion).

While market share is often touted to Wall Street as a sign of muscle, it only tells part of a studio's story. Studios that churn out the most titles have an advantage in terms of gaining share, but that doesn't take into consideration the key issue of profitability.

Official figures won't be released until today or Thursday, but the 2007 domestic box office is up about 5% to 6% from 2006, with total receipts totaling about $9.57 billion. The four top-grossing films were Sony's "Spider-Man 3" ($336.5 million), DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek the Third" ($321 million), DreamWorks-Par's "Transformers" ($319 million) and Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" ($309.4 million). This marks the first time that four films made more than $300 million in one year.

Variety
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Third time charms in record $9.62 bil boxoffice year
By Carl DiOrio
January 3, 2008

It was the year of the thrilling threequel. Film franchises have been all the rage for years, with annual lists of top grossers regularly dominated by sequels. But half of this year's 10 biggest films were sequels, with four of them representing third installments in money-machine franchises and "Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix" notching an incredible fifth "Potter" success for Warner Bros.

The familiar titles combined with plenty of lucrative new films -- topped by toy-turned-movie "Transformers" from DreamWorks/Paramount -- to push the domestic boxoffice to a record. Industry grosses totaled $9.62 billion in 2007, or 5% more than a year earlier and 4% more than the industry's previous high from 2002, according to Nielsen EDI.

Ticket sales also were up from 2006, with 1.41 billion admissions marking a 1% year-over-year uptick and the highest tally since 2004, EDI said Wednesday. The admissions boost, however modest, is especially good news for industryites, as a revenue hike without an accompanying rise in ticket sales tends to be shrugged off as inflationary numbers-padding.

"I think it's a great tribute to the industry that we had another record year," Warners domestic distribution president Dan Fellman said. "It wasn't too long ago that all the doomsayers were talking about the end of the motion picture industry as we knew it."

The Hollywood Reporter
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2007 boxoffice: Dividing up the spoils
THE MAJORS: Studios carved themselves big slices of market share in '07
By Gregg Kilday
January 3, 2008

From menacing Spartan warriors to chipper singing chipmunks, 2007's boxoffice attractions spanned the gamut. Following a heated summer, there was a cooling-off spell during the fall months, but the year still saw the domestic boxoffice gross climb to a record $9.62 billion.

As a result, when it came time for the major studios to carve up the pie, there were plenty of healthy slices to go around. For the first time ever, six studios crossed the $1 billion mark with their domestic tallies.

Paramount benefited mightily from its 2005 acquisition of DreamWorks because it was such DreamWorks titles as "Norbit" and "Blades of Glory" that put Paramount on a winning path in the spring. The studio got another shot of adrenaline by distributing DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek the Third," which captured $321 million domestically.

By the Fourth of July weekend, the $319.1 million-grossing "Transformers," a DreamWorks/Paramount co-production, assured the Melrose Avenue studio's eventual victory. The only studio to boast two $300 million-plus grossers, Paramount could claim a final haul of $1.49 billion.

The Hollywood Reporter
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Familiar faces led the 2007 boxoffice pack
By Gregg Kilday
January 3, 2008

Hollywood doesn't like to be taken by surprise -- unless the surprise is a hit movie that performs way above initial expectations, such as last year's "300" or "Superbad." Otherwise, it prefers an orderly rollout of preordained hits, and 2007 didn't disappoint on that score: The expected sequels dominated the top of the year's boxoffice chart.

Sony's "Spider-Man 3," which kicked off the summer popcorn season when it opened in early May, went on to set the standard for the year as it scored an opening-weekend record of $151.1 million on its way to a domestic gross of $336.5 million.

A sequel-heavy May also produced DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek the Third," which eventually hit $321 million, and Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," which dug up $309.4 million.

True, none of those films crested $400 million -- like the first "Spider-Man" and the second "Shrek" and "Pirates" -- which some attributed to sequel fatigue, while others pointed to how closely each of the mega-movies followed one another.

The Hollywood Reporter
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