• by Wayne Friedman , March 21, 2019

Worldwide theatrical box office revenues inched up 1% in 2018 to $41.1 billion. The biggest gains came from the U.S. and Canada, which posted a big 7% hike to $11.9 billion, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

Looking at foreign box-office business, revenue dipped -- for the first time in recent memory -- 1% to $29.2 billion. Much of this due to currency fluctuations.

In addition, the MPAA also said global home entertainment sales (physical and digital) rose by 16% in 2018 to $55.7 billion -- all due to digital consumer spending.

In the U.S., digital spending is increasing by 24% (to $17.5 billion), with international digital spending gaining by 34% (to $25.1 billion). U.S. sales-rentals of physical discs were down 15% to $5.8 million.

Positive news for movie marketers is that key demographic groups -- younger viewers -- continue to remain strong overall, thanks to three big fantasy/super-hero movie franchises. They include top box-office revenue for “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Incredibles 2.”

Frequent moviegoers -- those who go to movies once a month or more -- are responsible for just about half of all tickets sold. Twenty-five percent of those consumers are ages 25-39 -- the biggest frequent moviegoing group overall, at 10.8 million.

The typical moviegoer in the U.S. and Canada bought 5 tickets per person in 2018, up from 4.7 tickets in 2017 -- a total of 263.2 million. There were 1.3 billion movie theatrical tickets sold in 2018 -- up from 1.23 billion in 2017.