Despite a plague of pathetic new releases over the past two weeks, August 2011 ended up ahead of August 2010 in terms of gross. The month came in at $894 million, which was up two percent over last August.
August 2011 ranked as the fourth highest-grossing August of all time, behind 2007, 2009 and 2003. However, it saw the steepest July-to-August drop on record, as business was off 36 percent from July's $1.4 billion haul.
An estimated 111 million tickets were sold in August, off two percent from last year. That was on par with August 2005, ranking as one of the least-attended Augusts of the past 20 years.
Two movies crossed the $100 million mark, Rise and The Help, marking the first time that's happened in August since 2007. With $102.6 million in 22 days of August play, The Help handily surpassed most past comparable titles, including Julie & Julia and Eat Pray Love.
3D accounted for nearly $150 million of August's box office and was up around 35 percent from last August.
2011's total gross climbed to $7.2 billion, down 4.4 percent from 2010 and 1.1 percent from 2009 at the same eight-month points, though higher than any other year. At an estimated 906 million, attendance was running 5.4 percent behind 2010. So far, 2011's still the least-attended year since 1996.
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