About 1.41 billion movie tickets were sold this year, about the same number as last year. However, in 2002, 1.61 billion tickets were sold.

So, ticket sales are down 12% over the last 5 years.

The big macro story is that once upon a time, most Americans routinely went to the movies. Today, only a minority do. And that minority continues to shrink.

From here on out, Hollywood can -- and will -- continue to raise ticket prices to offset shrinking audiences. But that will presumably just cause the audiences to shrink faster.