Ticket prices fuel record $10.8B in box-office sales

Movie box-office sales rose to a record $10.8 billion last year, helped by higher prices for 3-D movies, but the number of tickets sold was down 16 percent since peaking in 2002, according to Hollywood.com.

Consumers are turning to cheaper, in-home entertainment, fueling the decline. For instance, Netflix Inc.’s online service costs $7.99 a month and provides unlimited access to streaming videos of mostly older television shows and films. That compares with an average movie ticket price in 2013 of $7.94, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners.

To counter the trend, large theater companies, such as Regal Entertainment Group, are looking to expand. By expanding, theater chains boost their bargaining leverage, helping them improve margins by winning better movie-rental rates from film studios and contracts with food vendors.