Box Office, Hollywood | featured news

Hollywood blockbusters appeared poised last year to take over China’s box office, but something unexpected happened on the way to the bank: demand tapered off sharply.

The good news for Hollywood: summer movie revenues are up worldwide as studios rebounded from a dismally slow start to the year. The bad news: Domestically, revenues rose only a fraction compared to the previous year's, while actual movie attendance dropped for the fourth-straight year.

Despite intense last-minute lobbying by major Hollywood studios, talent guilds and others, the first futures contract based on movie boxoffice results was approved Monday and are expected to start trading this year.

Lights, Camera ... Dissatisfaction! No, no, no. Trading box office futures is a terrible idea. They'll probably find a way to do it anyway, so in five years, look back at this post as your official warning.

Film boxoffices were poised on Wednesday to eclipse 2007's record $9.68 billion in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales with Hollywood eyeing more than $10 billion this year as audiences flocked to theaters during the recession.