PORTLAND, Jan. 1, 2016 (UPI) — The North American box office crossed the $11 billion benchmark for the year this week, making 2015 the highest-earning year in movie history, Rentrak announced.
Among the titles that drew people to theaters were “American Sniper,” “Fifty Shades of Grey,” “Furious 7,” “Inside Out,” “Jurassic World,” “Minions,” “Hotel Transylvania 2,” “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
The previous box-office record was set in 2013, when U.S. citizens and Canadians spent $10.9 billion going to the pictures.
“Hollywood built the perfect box office beast in 2015, with one hit movie after the next, week after week, exceeding expectations with a regularity that made it look easy,” said Rentrak’s senior media analyst, Paul Dergarabedian, in a statement. Rentrack is a global measurement and analytics company that serves the entertainment industry.
“With records falling like dominoes, the revenues just kept building as audiences flooded multiplexes in huge numbers. A diverse and compelling selection of great titles, big and small, from every studio fueled an extraordinary level of interest by patrons who seemingly could not get enough of the big-screen experience in 2015.”
