LOS ANGELES - It has been a summer of big numbers at the movies. Sixteen films -- including "Iron Man," "Hancock" and "Wall-E" -- have made $100 million or more each in ticket sales. "The Dark Knight" has raked in almost $518 million, surpassing "Star Wars" as No. 2 on the list of all-time box office leaders and fueling speculation it could beat 1997's "Titanic" to become all-time champion.
What studios don't talk about is how many people actually show up in the theaters. Adjusted for a rise in the average ticket price, attendance is down almost 5 percent this year. Hollywood isn't likely to correct the disconnect, because studios have seen the power of the dollar figures. They can slap "No. 1 Movie in America" banners on their films, knowing that topping the list in the opening weekend can mean life or death for a film.
But applying the average ticket price at a film's release dramatically changes the ranking of the 20 highest-grossing films. "The Dark Knight" becomes No. 8, for instance, slightly ahead of 2004's "Shrek 2," which sold an estimated 70.2 million tickets. Those estimates are admittedly inexact. Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media by Numbers, said films rated G and PG -- including "Shrek 2" -- could be undercounted because they are seen by children, whose tickets typically cost less than average.
