| VALENTI REPORTS 2003 BOX OFFICE AS SECOND HIGHEST IN HISTORY AT SHOWEST Commends theater owners for success despite competition for consumers’ entertainment choices |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Las Vegas, NV, March 23, 2004…At the annual ShoWest convention, Jack Valenti, President and Chief Executive
Officer of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), reported that 2003 was a “good year.” Noting that
box office totaled $9.5 billion, he said it was “the second largest total in the history of the movie industry. To
maintain that ascendant level of box office takings is a creative and marketing feat on a heroic scale.”
In a speech delivered before an assembly of theater owners, Valenti reflected on the relationship that he and the
theater owners have nurtured throughout his 38 years as head of the MPAA, “I can sum up for you in two words my
greatest accomplishment in that long tenure. Those two words are: ‘I survived.’ You have played a large part in my
survival because of the rapport built so solidly between exhibitors and distributors,” Valenti said.
Valenti reported that box office was down one third of one percent last year. He noted that admissions for 2003
were 1.57 billion, down four percent from 2002. However, he added, “Remember, in order to find any range of
admissions that compared to 2003, you have to go back 48 years, to 1955, before television and cable.”
“The onslaught of competition for the eye and ear of consumers is a lacerating catalogue of rivalries and
marketplace antagonisms,” said Valenti. He pointed out that in addition to the untold millions who play video
games, there are 108 million homes with TVs, 98 million with VCRs, 47 million with DVDs, 67 million with
computers, 62 million connected to the Internet, 22 million with broadband, 74 million with cable, 40 million with
pay cable, 25 million with digital cable and 20 million with satellite TV.
He said, “Yet, in spite of this spiraling competition, un-harnessed and unbounded, where new contenders for
viewers’ favor sprout up like kudzu, all aiming to lure consumers to their new enticements - in spite of the rowdy
assertive claims of the doomsday critics - in spite of all this marketplace hurly-burly, the movie theater still
enchants, still beckons, still prospers.”
Valenti told the exhibitors that their movie theaters still captivate audiences because “as I and others have said
endlessly – and accurately – what you offer consumers is an epic viewing experience and an alluring social
adventure they cannot duplicate in their homes – stadium seating, huge screens ripe with luminance, the sensuality
of digital sound, unknown but enthusiastic companions of a single night – all responding to the skills of cinema
artists who can make you laugh or cry or hold you in suspense.”
He added, “Even if families in the future are equipped with the latest home theater magic, it’s just not the same as
the emotional alchemy in a theater…The human desire to be entertained is ageless and changeless and delightfully
boundless. It is an asset devoutly to be treasured.”
Valenti cited that of the 473 films that were released last year, 198 were distributed by the member companies of
the MPAA.
Valenti also reported that “the cost tapeworm wiggling so energetically in film production, nibbling, chewing, eating
the fiscal molecules of the business, continues to stir restlessly.” He said that the average film negative cost of the
MPAA member companies rose to $63.8 million in 2003, an increase of 8.6% from 2002. Marketing costs increased
to an average of $39 million in 2003, a jump of 28% from the previous year. In total, the average cost of making
and marketing a movie by the MPAA member companies in 2003 was $102.8 million, 15% more than in 2002.
Valenti said, “There’s not much more that can be said except budget discipline will be a fervid priority among studio
executives. So it is that deficits are not only billowing in Hollywood but on center stage in Washington as well. Both
have to be brought under sensible control.”
In regard to demographics, Valenti said that movie audience remains the same as in previous years with the
exception of the 50-59 age group. That movie-going group rose by 20% from 2002 to 2003.
The highest percentage of the frequent movie-going audience, that is those who see more than one film a month,
remains to be those in the age group of 16-20.
Valenti closed with an acknowledgement of the partnership between the MPAA and the National Association of
Theatre Owners (NATO), the voluntary film rating system, introduced on November 1, 1968. Valenti recalled that
the rating system continues to prosper despite “the disabling creeds from critics whose understanding of the
motivations of the rating system is as meager as their memories of state and local censorship boards that lay upon
the land before the rating system came into being.”
Valenti noted that the rating system has prospered because parents have found it to be of use. He cited that the
most recent annual national poll found that 76% of all parents with children under 13 judged the rating system to
be “Very Useful” to “Fairly Useful” in helping parents decide what movies they want their children to see or not to
see. “That is a parental approval level which is both astounding and gratifying,” said Valenti.
He also said the rating system “freed the screen, allowing movie-makers to tell their stories as they choose to tell
them – but reminding them that freedom carries responsibilities, that some movies will have some restrictions from
viewing by children.”
Valenti paid a special tribute to NATO President John Fithian and Vice President and Executive Director MaryAnn
Anderson as “first class partners in assuring the endurance of a project so worthily respected by parents.” For a
copy of the “U.S. Entertainment Industry: 2003 MPA Market Statistics” report, please refer to the MPAA website.
# # #
About the MPAA:
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) serves as the voice and advocate of the
American motion picture, home video and television industries from its offices in Los Angeles and
Washington, D.C. These members include: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution; Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer Studios Inc.; Paramount Pictures; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth Century Fox
Film Corporation; Universal Studios from Universal City Studios; and Warner Bros.
Entertainment Inc.
Las Vegas, NV, March 23, 2004…At the annual ShoWest convention, Jack Valenti, President and Chief Executive
Officer of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), reported that 2003 was a “good year.” Noting that
box office totaled $9.5 billion, he said it was “the second largest total in the history of the movie industry. To
maintain that ascendant level of box office takings is a creative and marketing feat on a heroic scale.”
In a speech delivered before an assembly of theater owners, Valenti reflected on the relationship that he and the
theater owners have nurtured throughout his 38 years as head of the MPAA, “I can sum up for you in two words my
greatest accomplishment in that long tenure. Those two words are: ‘I survived.’ You have played a large part in my
survival because of the rapport built so solidly between exhibitors and distributors,” Valenti said.
Valenti reported that box office was down one third of one percent last year. He noted that admissions for 2003
were 1.57 billion, down four percent from 2002. However, he added, “Remember, in order to find any range of
admissions that compared to 2003, you have to go back 48 years, to 1955, before television and cable.”
“The onslaught of competition for the eye and ear of consumers is a lacerating catalogue of rivalries and
marketplace antagonisms,” said Valenti. He pointed out that in addition to the untold millions who play video
games, there are 108 million homes with TVs, 98 million with VCRs, 47 million with DVDs, 67 million with
computers, 62 million connected to the Internet, 22 million with broadband, 74 million with cable, 40 million with
pay cable, 25 million with digital cable and 20 million with satellite TV.
He said, “Yet, in spite of this spiraling competition, un-harnessed and unbounded, where new contenders for
viewers’ favor sprout up like kudzu, all aiming to lure consumers to their new enticements - in spite of the rowdy
assertive claims of the doomsday critics - in spite of all this marketplace hurly-burly, the movie theater still
enchants, still beckons, still prospers.”
Valenti told the exhibitors that their movie theaters still captivate audiences because “as I and others have said
endlessly – and accurately – what you offer consumers is an epic viewing experience and an alluring social
adventure they cannot duplicate in their homes – stadium seating, huge screens ripe with luminance, the sensuality
of digital sound, unknown but enthusiastic companions of a single night – all responding to the skills of cinema
artists who can make you laugh or cry or hold you in suspense.”
He added, “Even if families in the future are equipped with the latest home theater magic, it’s just not the same as
the emotional alchemy in a theater…The human desire to be entertained is ageless and changeless and delightfully
boundless. It is an asset devoutly to be treasured.”
Valenti cited that of the 473 films that were released last year, 198 were distributed by the member companies of
the MPAA.
Valenti also reported that “the cost tapeworm wiggling so energetically in film production, nibbling, chewing, eating
the fiscal molecules of the business, continues to stir restlessly.” He said that the average film negative cost of the
MPAA member companies rose to $63.8 million in 2003, an increase of 8.6% from 2002. Marketing costs increased
to an average of $39 million in 2003, a jump of 28% from the previous year. In total, the average cost of making
and marketing a movie by the MPAA member companies in 2003 was $102.8 million, 15% more than in 2002.
Valenti said, “There’s not much more that can be said except budget discipline will be a fervid priority among studio
executives. So it is that deficits are not only billowing in Hollywood but on center stage in Washington as well. Both
have to be brought under sensible control.”
In regard to demographics, Valenti said that movie audience remains the same as in previous years with the
exception of the 50-59 age group. That movie-going group rose by 20% from 2002 to 2003.
The highest percentage of the frequent movie-going audience, that is those who see more than one film a month,
remains to be those in the age group of 16-20.
Valenti closed with an acknowledgement of the partnership between the MPAA and the National Association of
Theatre Owners (NATO), the voluntary film rating system, introduced on November 1, 1968. Valenti recalled that
the rating system continues to prosper despite “the disabling creeds from critics whose understanding of the
motivations of the rating system is as meager as their memories of state and local censorship boards that lay upon
the land before the rating system came into being.”
Valenti noted that the rating system has prospered because parents have found it to be of use. He cited that the
most recent annual national poll found that 76% of all parents with children under 13 judged the rating system to
be “Very Useful” to “Fairly Useful” in helping parents decide what movies they want their children to see or not to
see. “That is a parental approval level which is both astounding and gratifying,” said Valenti.
He also said the rating system “freed the screen, allowing movie-makers to tell their stories as they choose to tell
them – but reminding them that freedom carries responsibilities, that some movies will have some restrictions from
viewing by children.”
Valenti paid a special tribute to NATO President John Fithian and Vice President and Executive Director MaryAnn
Anderson as “first class partners in assuring the endurance of a project so worthily respected by parents.” For a
copy of the “U.S. Entertainment Industry: 2003 MPA Market Statistics” report, please refer to the MPAA website.
# # #
About the MPAA:
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) serves as the voice and advocate of the
American motion picture, home video and television industries from its offices in Los Angeles and
Washington, D.C. These members include: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution; Metro-Goldwyn-
Mayer Studios Inc.; Paramount Pictures; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Twentieth Century Fox
Film Corporation; Universal Studios from Universal City Studios; and Warner Bros.
Entertainment Inc.
Vegas' Arts & Entertainment Corner
Lights -- Camera -- Action!
