The numbers are in, and it looks like people really enjoyed going to the movies in 2001.
For the first time in history, box office earnings topped $8.38 billion, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Grosses were expected to be higher since ticket prices have increased, even with the closing of several smaller distribution houses and less screens across the country. This new record is 9 percent higher than the previous record of $7.66 billion, set in 2000, and shows the longest running expansion in the movie business as revenues increased for the 10th straight year.
The total year take-in can be attributed in large part to one film–Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
The movie, about an 11-year-old wizard, started breaking records on its opening day with a healthy haul of $32.3 million, breaking the previous opening-day record of $28.5 million taken in by Star Wars: Episode I–The Phantom Menace. In its first three days of release, Potter had grossed an unprecedented $90.3 million.
Potter has helped Warner Bros. hit the $1 billion mark again and has become the year’s highest grossing film with $291.4 million. The studio reached $1 billion in 1999 as well, with hits The Matrix, The Green Mile and Wild, Wild West.
Also for the first time, six releases grossed more than $200 million in 2001, rivaled only in 1999 when four releases exceeded the $200 million mark (The Phantom Menace, The Sixth Sense, Toy Story 2 and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me). In addition to Potter, there was DreamWorks’ Shrek ($267.8 million), Disney’s Monsters, Inc. ($239.5 million), New Line’s Rush Hour 2 ($226.1 million), Universal’s The Mummy Returns ($202 million) and New Line’s Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ($175.3 million to date), which is expected to pass $200 million soon.
The Motion Picture Association of America will release the final 2001 national box office and admissions numbers at the ShoWest convention in March, along with the year’s average ticket price as determined by the National Association of Theatre Owners.
