Movies score record year
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from January 1990.
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Despite a lackluster Christmas holiday season, summertime moviegoers spun the turnstiles at such a dizzying pace that the box-office record of 4.45 billion dollars from 1988 was smashed, according. to figures released this week.
The official box-office total was set by fewer films: 446 features made their debuts in 1989, down 13 percent from the previous year.
In the studio-by-studio race, Warner Bros. was No. 1 with an estimated 17.1 percent share of all U.S. and Canadian tickets sold.
The studio's "Batman" was the year's biggest blockbuster. Its 251.2 million dollars in ticket sales was fifth-highest in history.
Disney, which some analysts didn't expect to be competitive, finished fifth with a healthy 13.8 percent share.
Although part of the revenue surge is attributable to higher ticket prices, admissions are projected to be greater than last year.
In large part, the record year was propelled by expensive and heavily marketed star vehicles such as "Batman," and "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," which made 196 million dollars and "Lethal Weapon 2," which collected 147 million, according to trade publications and private research firms.
Right behind, the lightly regarded "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" emerged as 1989's No. 4 film with receipts of 130 million. It was followed by the 1988 holdover "Rain Man" 127 million.
