![\"megashark2\"](\"http:\/\/kara.allthingsd.com\/files\/2010\/01\/megashark2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBoomTown is back from a lovely holiday vacation and am gearing up for the Consumer Electronics Show that starts later this week in Las Vegas, but I have been struck by the $1 billion-plus haul that tech-heavy “Avatar” has brought in over that time.<\/p>\n
Does that mean movies in theaters are holding their own against online incursions?<\/p>\n
It would seem so, according to box-office reports for the year. Tallies for the U.S. alone were up 10 percent to close to $10 billion for 2009.<\/p>\n
Or is there trouble behind this success, since another key revenue stream is weakening?<\/p>\n
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal<\/a> today:<\/p>\n Last year was the first since 2002 that U.S. consumers spent more money buying movie tickets than buying movies to watch at home, underscoring the changing economics of Hollywood…<\/p>\n The figures indicate that studios will likely have to continue looking for ways to survive in a marketplace where they can’t count on hefty home-entertainment revenue to offset giant production costs. Those costs often more than eat up the studios’ half of the box-office receipts, which are split with theaters.<\/p>\n The ongoing decline in home-entertainment revenue has already fundamentally altered the way studios do business, forcing them to place big financial bets on hoped-for mass-market blockbusters at the expense of features that cost less to make but that also have smaller earnings potential.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Since online purchase and rentals are nowhere close in terms of revenue (see chart below), declining DVD sales could be a worrisome trend for Hollywood.<\/p>\n We’ll see what happens in 2010. Until then, here are videos of the top 10 most-viewed trailers of 2009, according to Yahoo<\/a> (YHOO)–which garnered many tens of millions of views on its popular movie site.<\/p>\n Most–but not all–of them track on the big box-office winners, although the group includes an unusual one: “Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus,” starring Lorenzo Lamas, which was not exactly a hit.<\/p>\n Here they are:<\/p>\n No. 10 UP<\/strong><\/p>\n No. 9: AVATAR<\/strong><\/p>\n No. 8: MEGA SHARK VS. GIANT OCTOPUS<\/strong><\/p>\n No. 7: STAR TREK<\/strong><\/p>\n No. 6: G.I. JOE<\/strong><\/p>\n No. 5: HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE<\/strong><\/p>\n NO. 4: TERMINATOR SALVATION<\/strong><\/p>\n No. 3: 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n No. 2: TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN<\/strong><\/p>\n No. 1: THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON<\/strong><\/p>\n Buy This Item: [Click here to buy this item]<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\n