The domestic box office will fall short in 2010 of the industry's $10.6 billion benchmark, according to industry research services.
They estimated that North American revenue would fall slightly for the year to just over $10.5 billion, and said that attendance would be down by more than five percent.
But fortunately for the movie business, virtually every studio saw its foreign grosses increase significantly in 2010, so the most meaningful box-office number of them all — worldwide gross — is expected to surpass 2009's record $29.9 billion total.
Market share leader Warner Bros., for example, didn't break any domestic marks by grossing $1.89 billion in North America this year. But driven by a record-shattering $2.94 billion performance overseas, Warner enjoyed an alltime global revenue haul of $4.83 billion in 2010 (breaking its own $4.01 billion wordwide total from 2009).
Official foreign and worldwide numbers should emerge this week, but full-year domestic data is already availabke.
Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com put the full 2010 domestic tally at $10.55 billion, missing a 2009 benchmark of $10.6 billion. He has overall domestic attendence down 5.36 percent.
Rival data collector Exhibitor Relations, meanwhile, pegs the domestic market at $10.54 billion vs. $10.58 billion last year, with ticket sales falling 5 percent to 1.34 billion individual purchases.
BoxOffice Mojo, which tallied the 2009 market at $10.59 billion, comes up with $10.31 billion for 2010.
Official numbers are still pending from the National Association of Theater Owners and the Motion Picture Association of America.
"I happen to think these are pretty good numbers, given the quality of the movies this year," said one studio distribution president. "I just don't think the movies were as good."
