March 2000 Roars Past $600 Million

3-Apr-00

The one-two punch from Universal's ""Erin Brockovich"" and Buena Vista's ""Mission To Mars"" helped propel March 2000's national boxoffice to a new high of $602.8 million, marking the first time the accumulation for the month has ever surpassed $600 million. It was a nice turnaround at the boxoffice for the month after two consecutive years of back-to-back decreases in March receipts. The new high was 9 percent better than the $550.6 million racked up during the comparable period last March but was only a 2 percent increase over the previous all-time high of $593 million, set in 1997 when Universal's ""Liar Liar"" was king. But while things were looking up at the boxoffice, the same could not be said for ticket sales. Higher ticket prices drove the boxoffice into new territory while roughly the same number of people were warming the seats in movie theaters as last year. Admissions for March were in a virtual tie with last year as ticket units were up by less than 1 percent with an estimated 115.9 million, compared to 115.1 million a year ago. Source: The Hollywood Reporter