10/01/2012

2011 registered a downturn of the U.S. box office, with intakes of 10,163.0 billion dollars, minus 3,9% compared to the 10,565.5 billion dollars of 2010.

According to the data available on the specialised website boxofficemojo.com, 1,276.8 billion tickets were sold in 2011, 4,7% less than the previous year. It is the worst result since 1995.

Mojo blames this downturn on the lack of a "phenomenon" such as Avatar and states that the strategy of sequels, released mostly in December (Sherlock Holmes: A Game ofShadows, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked) was not sufficient to boost the fortune of the 2011 box office. The latter has nonetheless based its fortune on sequels, which appear among the first seven titles of the year, headed by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile], with 381 million dollars.

2011 is also indicated as the year in which 3D reached saturation point, with 38 releases (+ 38%compared to 2010). All these titles did not attain 3D’s excellent performance in 2010 (Avatar, Toy Story 3 and Alice in Wonderland). If the 3D supplement on a ticket has brought in greater takings, these have not brought more people to the cinema, in fact there is also a possibility that many viewers were put off by the increase in price on the ticket.

In 2012 Hollywood aims to stabilise last year’s results, with new sequels and lots of animation, in 3D moreover, despite the apparent decline in viewers’ interest. The title on which the highest hopes are pinned is The Dark Knight Rises, sequel to Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight from 2008. This year foresees 11 animation films, 37 3D titles (of which 4 are re-releases such as Titanic, Beauty and the Beast, Finding Nemo and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace) and at least 27 franchise movies, with sequels, prequels and spi- offs, including Ridley Scott ‘s Prometheus , which presents itself as a prequel of the brilliant Alien.

(Translated from Italian)