For the first time in nearly 30 years, the cost of making a movie actually went down last year, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.?The organization released figures at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas showing that the average cost of making a movie and marketing it declined 2.6 percent to $76 million last year from $78 million in 1998.?Speaking to the assembled exhibitors Tuesday, MPAA president Jack Valenti said, "There is a diligence, a discipline, a connection to reality that has invaded the thinking of every major studio." Meanwhile, ticket prices rose an average of 38 cents to $5.08 last year (in some large cities they neared $10), driven up by the costs of constructing new theaters and refurbishing others.?Nevertheless, John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, which sponsors ShoWest, insisted that the ticket prices continue to represent a bargain.?"I think patrons are willing to pay a lot more for our new theaters," he told the Associated Press.
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