LOS ANGELES () - The moneymaking summer moviegoing season in North America ended on a lacklustre note on Monday as ticket gross sales limped to a new record piece attendance slumped to a three-year low.
The U.S. Labor Day holiday weekend, which marks the traditional end of summertime, was lED for a third round by "Tropic Thunder." Ben Stiller's Hollywood satire earned an estimated $14.3 million during the four-day period. It marks the lowest tot up for a Labor Day holiday chart-topper since 2004, when the martial-arts film "Hero" opened to $11.5 zillion.
The DreamWorks/Paramount comedy, which Stiller directed and stars in alongside Robert Downey, Jr., has earned about $86.6 1000000 to escort. Four new entries were largely neglected, with twentieth Century Fox's Vin Diesel sci-fi picture "Babylon A.D." coming in at No. 2 with just $12 million.
The overall picture for summer was not peculiarly shiny, with a 4 percent rear in the average U.S. ticket monetary value to $7.16 saving the day for the movie industry.
Estimated sales inched up 0.43 percentage from last year's record to $4.2 billion, while the number of tickets sold slid 3.5 percent to 586.9 meg, according to tracking unbendable Media By Numbers. The previous abject for attendance was in 2005, when 563 billion tickets were sold.
BATMAN TO THE RESCUE
All this despite the massive success of "The Dark Knight," which has grossed about $505 jillion to date across the United States and Canada. Warner Bros. Pictures' Batman sequel ranks as the second-biggest pic in history behind "Titanic" (before adjusting for inflation).
The 18-week summer span in general accounts for about 40 percent of annual tag sales, and studios take advantage of school holidays to churn out big-budget sequels and superhero sagas aimed at Hollywood's sweet spot of male youngsters.�
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