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Movie ticket prices fell 1% in both the second quarter and the first half of 2019, according to the latest figures from the National Association of Theatre Owners, but admissions and box office remain in the red.
Average ticket prices came in at $9.26 in the second quarter, compared with $9.38 a year ago, with the first-half average reaching $9.16, down from $9.27.
Through June 30, North American box office receipts totaled $5.6 billion, which is about 9.5% below the comparable 2018 level of $6.2 billion. Admissions have slipped 8.4% to 613.2 million.
NATO offered the reminder that box office at the end of the first quarter trailed 2018 by 16% and admissions were off by 15%. After a slump in 2017, grosses returned to set an all-time mark last year at $11.858 billion.
The makeup of movie audiences has not undergone a dramatic shift in recent months. Citing numbers from comScore’s PostTrak, NATO said the largest age group buying tickets is people ages 18 to 24, at 26.6% of the total. That’s down a percentage point from the second quarter of 2018.
Family titles showed strength in the quarter, with moviegoers under 10, or between 10 and 12, posting healthier numbers than they did in 2018, at a respective 7.7% and 5.3% of total box office.
Overall, the top five films of the first six months of the year were Avengers: Endgame; Aladdin; Toy Story 4, John Wick, Chapter 3 — Parabellum; and Detective Pikachu.
Demographically of note among the top five movies, Endgame (which has grossed $841.9 million in North America to date) drew an audience that was 58% male. That’s slightly less male than John Wick‘s male-female ration, which was 60-40. On a studio level, Disney released the top three titles and will continue its run of dominance this weekend as The Lion King hits theaters.