Stable '07 in theaters

0 Comments | USA TODAY, March, 2008 | by Scott Bowles

LOS ANGELES -- Despite the biggest ticket price increases in seven years, movie attendance managed to hold steady last year, the Motion Picture Association of America says.

Considering home theaters and the Internet, flat numbers aren't bad, says MPAA chief Dan Glickman. "Consumers are open to the digital home and the movie house," he said during a news conference Wednesday. "All in all, 2007 proved pretty healthy."

And costly. The average cost of a movie ticket rose 5% to $6.88, the biggest jump since 2000. Ticket inflation helped Hollywood rake in a record $9.6 billion last year in the USA and Canada.

Though that's $300 million more than any other year, attendance has remained relatively unchanged for several years. Roughly 1.4 billion tickets...