The US film industry enjoyed a 'Hollywood ending' despite multiple threats to its well-being in 2007, earning record foreign and domestic box office receipts, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) reported on Wednesday.
The US market posted 9.6 billion dollars in sales, a year-on-year growth of 5.4 percent, while the global box office receipts grew 4.9 percent to 26.7 billion, MPAA said in its annual report.
"From the threat and eventual reality of a writer's strike to the global impact of film theft to concerns over the economy, the film industry faced significant challenges in 2007," MPAA chairman Dan Glickman said. "But ultimately we got our Hollywood ending."
The report by the MPAA, which represents Hollywood's top film studios, took note of the increasingly vital role of the Internet in the marketing of films.
An MPAAYahoo! study found that "73 percent of people who went to the movies used the Internet to conduct research," rivaling the influence of radio and television, which 75 percent of moviegoers said they used to help in decision-making.
Hollywood made a total of 603 films in 2007, roughly the same as the previous year.