Hollywood has its best year ever in 2009 (but piracy is killing the business?)

Posted by Kevin Huffman Tech Monday, March 15th, 2010

I could have sworn “piracy” was killing the movie industry. Apparently not, when you actually look at the data ! The year 2009 was the single best year in Hollywood history as far as “money” is concerned—if you can find a single decent movie produced by Hollywood last year I’d love to see it—where it made $29.9 billion in ticket sales alone. (Never mind how much Blu-ray and DVD sales will bring in.) So again: if piracy is killing the industry, how do you explain these numbers? Well, we’ll try to explain them. Last year was the year of Avatar — Avatar is 3D, to be exact. A ticket to a 3D showing cost quite a premium, something like $14-$15 (or more!) depending on your location instead of the usual $10ish. That’s pretty much the only explanation. Avatar was to Hollywood what the Wii was to Nintendo for a while there—simply a money-printing machine. Perhaps it speaks to an earlier thesis: you cannot “pirate” the 3D “experience,” so Hollywood should be flying high for a little while.