Canada had a record-breaking year in terms of box-office receipts, according to Howard Lichtman, president of Lightning Group, Toronto.

During his annual state-of-the-industry address to the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada at ShowCanada in early May, Lichtman reported a 14.5% increase in Canadian box office in 2002 with approximately $835 million for the year, up from about $732 million in 2001. Another important stat shows that Canadian box-office returns have more than doubled since 1995 and its mere $324 million.

In the bigger picture for North America, box-office bucks broke the $9-billion mark for the first time ever (up 13.2% from 2001) to hit $9.5 billion. Canadian revenue accounted for 9% of the figure.

Canada’s 2002 attendance rose to 115 million from 107 million, while the U.S. saw sales reach 1.64 billion ticket sales, a 40-year high. Lichtman cites ‘great film product, baby boomers and teenagers who love the movies going more often, and great state-of-the-art theatres’ as factors in the increase in North American admissions.

According to Lichtman, Canadian ticket prices increased in 2002 by 7% over 2001, taking the average admission fee from approximately $6.81 to $7.31. Conversely, the number of screens (including independent cinemas) decreased by 2%.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man was the top-grossing film of 2002 in both Canada and the U.S. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers placed second in Canada, while Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones took the second spot in the States.