The Numbers - Box Office Data, Movie Stars, Idle Speculation
Shop at Amazon.com!

Buy Posters at AllPosters.com
Thursday, September 2, 2010

US Movie Market Summary 1995 to 2010

Welcome to The Numbers' reference library analyzing trends in the US movie industry since 1995. In this area of the site, you'll find over 2,000 pages of information detailing the changes that have shaped the industry.

Our market analysis is built on The Numbers' unique categorization system, which uses six different criteria to identify a movie. Every movie released since 1995 is categorized according to the following attributes: Creative Type (factual, contemporary fiction, fantasy etc.), Source (book, play, original screenplay...), Genre (drama, horror, documentary etc.), MPAA Rating, Production Method (live action, digital animation etc.) and Distributor. Our market charts provide year-by-year analysis across these categories, allowing analysis of market trends. See, for example, how horror movie revenues have varied, the emergence of digital animation and live action/CGI animated movies, and the decline of R-rated movies. To explore, click on an individual year, distributor, genre, creative type, production method or MPAA rating to see annual trends in a particular category.

Note: in order to provide a fair comparison between movies released in different years, all rankings are based on ticket sales, which are calculated using average ticket prices announced by the MPAA in their annual state of the industry report.

Annual Ticket Sales



                                 
Tickets (billion) 1.22 1.26 1.42 1.44 1.44 1.39 1.44 1.58 1.55 1.49 1.40 1.41 1.40 1.39 1.42 1.40
Revenue ($bn) $5.29 $5.59 $6.51 $6.77 $7.30 $7.48 $8.13 $9.19 $9.35 $9.27 $8.95 $9.25 $9.63 $9.95 $10.65 $11.03

Note: Figures for 2010 are at an annualized rate.

Top Movie of Each Year

This table lists the top-grossing movie for each year. Click on the year to see a detailed breakdown for the market as a whole in that year.

YearMovie
Categorization

- Creative Type
- Production Method
- Source
- Genre
MPAA
Rating
DistributorTotal for YearTotal in 2010 dollarsTickets Sold
 1995  Batman Forever - Super Hero
- Live Action
- Original Screenplay
- Action
PG-13 Warner Bros. $183,997,904 $317,237,768 42,298,369
 1996  Independence Day - Science Fiction
- Live Action
- Original Screenplay
- Adventure
PG-13 20th Century Fox $306,124,059 $519,441,278 69,258,837
 1997  Men in Black - Science Fiction
- Live Action
- Based on Comic/Graphic Novel
- Adventure
PG-13 Sony Pictures $250,107,128 $408,671,775 54,489,570
 1998  Titanic - Historical Fiction
- Live Action
- Original Screenplay
- Thriller/Suspense
PG-13 Paramount Pictures $443,319,081 $708,932,430 94,524,324
 1999  Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menace - Science Fiction
- Animation/Live Action
- Original Screenplay
- Adventure
PG 20th Century Fox $430,443,350 $635,497,073 84,732,943
 2000  How the Grinch Stole Christmas - Kids Fiction
- Live Action
- Based on Book/Short Story
- Comedy
PG Universal $253,367,455 $352,552,118 47,006,949
 2001  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Fantasy
- Animation/Live Action
- Based on Book/Short Story
- Adventure
PG Warner Bros. $291,594,218 $386,388,098 51,518,413
 2002  Spider-Man - Super Hero
- Live Action
- Based on Comic/Graphic Novel
- Adventure
PG-13 Sony Pictures $403,706,375 $521,135,595 69,484,746
 2003  Finding Nemo - Kids Fiction
- Digital Animation
- Original Screenplay
- Adventure
G Walt Disney Pictures $339,714,367 $422,530,305 56,337,374
 2004  Shrek 2 - Kids Fiction
- Digital Animation
- Based on Book/Short Story
- Adventure
PG Dreamworks SKG $436,471,036 $527,138,933 70,285,191
 2005  Star Wars Ep. III: Revenge of the Sith - Science Fiction
- Animation/Live Action
- Original Screenplay
- Adventure
PG-13 20th Century Fox $380,262,555 $444,924,990 59,323,332
 2006  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Fantasy
- Live Action
- Disney Ride
- Adventure
PG-13 Walt Disney Pictures $423,315,812 $484,712,760 64,628,368
 2007  Spider-Man 3 - Super Hero
- Live Action
- Based on Comic/Graphic Novel
- Adventure
PG-13 Sony Pictures $336,530,303 $366,857,160 48,914,288
 2008  The Dark Knight - Super Hero
- Live Action
- Based on Comic/Graphic Novel
- Action
PG-13 Warner Bros. $531,001,578 $554,667,390 73,955,652
 2009  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Science Fiction
- Animation/Live Action
- Based on TV
- Action
PG-13 Paramount Pictures $402,111,870 $402,111,870 53,614,916
 2010  Toy Story 3 - Kids Fiction
- Digital Animation
- Original Screenplay
- Adventure
G Walt Disney Pictures $405,659,221 $385,119,510 51,349,268

Top-Grossing Distributors 1995 to 2010

  MoviesTotal GrossAverage GrossMarket Share
1 Walt Disney Pictures 421 $23,934,402,683 $56,851,313 14.37%
2 Warner Bros. 462 $23,647,141,808 $51,184,290 14.20%
3 Sony Pictures 453 $20,578,591,523 $45,427,354 12.35%
4 Paramount Pictures 313 $19,246,721,445 $61,491,123 11.56%
5 20th Century Fox 330 $18,732,712,658 $56,765,796 11.25%
6 Universal 308 $17,259,291,998 $56,036,662 10.36%
7 New Line 203 $8,352,251,063 $41,144,094 5.01%
8 Dreamworks SKG 77 $5,692,389,953 $73,927,142 3.42%
9 Miramax 374 $5,332,504,905 $14,258,035 3.20%
10 MGM 229 $4,884,836,565 $21,331,164 2.93%

See complete chart

Top-Grossing Genres 1995 to 2010

  MoviesTotal GrossAverage GrossMarket Share
1 Comedy 1,579 $40,373,665,395 $25,569,136 24.28%
2 Adventure 442 $32,313,749,303 $73,108,030 19.43%
3 Drama 2,731 $29,689,925,775 $10,871,448 17.85%
4 Action 500 $28,467,135,023 $56,934,270 17.12%
5 Thriller/Suspense 456 $12,354,908,273 $27,094,097 7.43%
6 Romantic Comedy 350 $9,895,464,210 $28,272,755 5.95%
7 Horror 282 $7,919,740,770 $28,084,187 4.76%
8 Documentary 845 $1,844,994,810 $2,183,426 1.11%
9 Musical 100 $1,616,923,463 $16,169,235 0.97%
10 Black Comedy 68 $707,867,280 $10,409,813 0.43%

See complete chart

Top-Grossing MPAA Ratings 1995 to 2010

  MoviesTotal GrossAverage GrossMarket Share
1 PG-13 1,795 $74,418,892,148 $41,458,993 44.76%
2 R 3,212 $48,145,564,643 $14,989,279 28.96%
3 PG 868 $31,868,465,213 $36,714,822 19.17%
4 G 248 $9,336,864,893 $37,648,649 5.62%
5 Not Rated 2,280 $1,688,507,115 $740,573 1.02%
6 NC-17 17 $56,306,318 $3,312,136 0.03%
7 Open 5 $7,298,775 $1,459,755 0.00%

See complete chart

Top-Grossing Sources 1995 to 2010

  MoviesTotal GrossAverage GrossMarket Share
1 Original Screenplay 3,762 $82,106,482,830 $21,825,221 49.26%
2 Based on Book/Short Story 1,224 $37,894,000,808 $30,959,151 22.74%
3 Remake 214 $11,022,955,785 $51,509,139 6.61%
4 Based on TV 158 $8,946,395,655 $56,622,757 5.37%
5 Based on Comic/Graphic Novel 93 $8,090,036,588 $86,989,641 4.85%
6 Based on Real Life Events 1,174 $7,883,400,863 $6,714,992 4.73%
7 Based on Play 154 $1,789,124,063 $11,617,689 1.07%
8 Disney Ride 6 $1,317,918,915 $219,653,153 0.79%
9 Based on Magazine Article 25 $1,292,150,595 $51,686,024 0.78%

See complete chart

Top-Grossing Production Methods 1995 to 2010

  MoviesTotal GrossAverage GrossMarket Share
1 Live Action 6,928 $139,398,187,080 $20,120,985 83.78%
2 Animation/Live Action 73 $11,562,304,650 $158,387,735 6.95%
3 Digital Animation 117 $10,523,663,535 $89,945,842 6.33%
4 Hand Animation 94 $3,658,134,923 $38,916,329 2.20%
5 Stop-Motion Animation 19 $457,684,740 $24,088,671 0.28%
6 Rotoscoping 4 $10,203,893 $2,550,973 0.01%
7 Multiple Production Methods 6 $1,735,208 $289,201 0.00%

See complete chart

Top-Grossing Creative Types 1995 to 2010

  MoviesTotal GrossAverage GrossMarket Share
1 Contemporary Fiction 3,442 $81,058,033,283 $23,549,690 48.76%
2 Kids Fiction 279 $17,604,527,940 $63,098,666 10.59%
3 Fantasy 377 $17,390,085,300 $46,127,547 10.46%
4 Science Fiction 290 $16,470,792,945 $56,795,838 9.91%
5 Historical Fiction 714 $15,056,926,950 $21,088,133 9.06%
6 Dramatization 469 $8,434,687,808 $17,984,409 5.07%
7 Super Hero 53 $7,028,616,345 $132,615,403 4.23%
8 Factual 878 $2,196,563,970 $2,501,781 1.32%
9 Multiple Creative Types 11 $10,907,760 $991,615 0.01%

See complete chart