Summer Movie Attendance Falls To Lowest in More Than a Decade (DIS, LGF)

Summer movie attendance fell to its lowest level in more than a decade, Hollywood.com Box-Office said yesterday.

According to a Bloomberg report, "The number of tickets sold from the first weekend of May through the U.S. Labor Day holiday is expected to drop 2.6 percent to 552 million, Hollywood.com Box-Office said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. That would be the lowest attendance since summer moviegoers bought 540.3 million tickets in 1997."

Paul Dergarabedian, president of Hollywood.com Box-Office, explained the dynamic in an interview.

"The movies just didn’t excite people the way they needed to. When you raise prices and perceive that quality goes down, you have a major problem.”

The Bloomberg report notes that "Summer box-office revenue will rise 2.4 percent to a record $4.35 billion in the U.S. and Canada as higher prices more than make up for the lower attendance, Hollywood.com estimates. The average ticket price will increase 5.1 percent to $7.88 from last year’s $7.50, the biggest gain since a 6.3 percent jump in 2000, Hollywood.com said."

The news is particularly disappointing to movie studios, especially Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: LGF) and the Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS).

Both companies have poured capital into a strong summer movie season, and have come up short in attendance.

Shares of Lions Gate are higher by more than 12% after a buyout bid was announced. Shares of Disney are up 1.1% this afternoon, to $32.72.

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