Box Office Movie Attendance Hit a 15-Year Low in November

by Brandon Gray

It's half-way through the holiday movie season, and business has been dull. The November box office came in at $897 million, which was off ten percent from November 2009's record $995 million haul. That represented the steepest year-to-year drop on record.

What's worse, November 2010 was the weakest November in 15 years in terms of estimated attendance, winding up at approximately 106 million. It edged out November 2007 for the dishonor.

Much of the disparity between November 2010 and 2009 came from 2010's programming lacking an event picture in the middle of the month. 2009 had 2012 lined up mid-month, versus the more limited Unstoppable and low-rent Skyline this year. Furthermore, there were no surprise hits in November 2010 to match The Blind Side in 2009. November 2010's brightest spot in terms of flouting past comparisons was Tangled, but that came near the end of the month and wasn't enough to right the course.

November was the fourth month in a row of 2010 that was down in attendance compared to 2009. As a whole, 2010's gross was still running ahead of 2009 through Nov. 30, $9.68 billion to $9.53 billion, but 2010's the least-attended year since 1997 thus far.

As expected, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 was by far the top-grossing picture of November 2010 with $223.7 million. Megamind was second with $131 million, followed by Due Date ($85.8 million), Tangled ($72.2 million) and Unstoppable ($61.7 million).

November Weekend Reports
• 11/8 - 'Megamind' Devises Brawny Start, 'Due Date' Pays Off
• 11/15 - 'Megamind' Stays on Track, 'Unstoppable' Holds the Denzel Line
• 11/22 - 'Deathly' Marks Liveliest 'Harry Potter' Debut Yet
• 11/29 - 'Harry Potter,' 'Tangled' Tower Over Thanksgiving Weekend