JAMAICANS spent $151 million at the movies during the busy Christmas-quarter but it was 12 per cent less than a year earlier when Avatar debuted, according to just-released data.

Four 3D films were released in December alone including Narnia 3D, Jackass 3D, Gulivers’ Travels 3D and Disney’s Tangled 3D, yet these films couldn’t compare with revenue generated locally from Avatar, the initial 3D digital film released in Christmas 2009. The decline in movie spend resulted in a $14.5-million quarterly net loss for Palace Amusement which runs the local cinemas, according to financials released this month to the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

The rush of 3D films during Christmas arguably led Palace to delay the premiere of blockbuster Tron 3D. Tron was released in Christmas in the US but debuted locally in January. The upside was that local movie-goers benefited from longer runs of Jamaican films including Better Mus Come.

Palace stated in its latest annual report that 3D films offered the best defence against piracy due to the difficulty of replicating the experience. The result was that annual attendance increased seven per cent, to some 840,500 year on year. This is a rare increase for the company which saw its annual attendance decline from 1.2 million in 1994. The decline rapidly accelerated in the millennium due to the availability of $100 bootleg DVDs and streaming web movies. Increased access to high-speed Internet has enabled users to stream or download movies legally or otherwise.

Box office ticket sales account for some 60 per cent of the spend and the remainder on popcorn, hot dogs and refreshments according to data released by Palace Amusement Company, which runs the island’s cinemas. Over six months between July to December, Carib 5 in Kingston earned the bulk of box office receipts at $114.3 million, followed by Palace Multiplex in Montego Bay at $50.2 million, Palace Cineplex in Kingston at $39.1 million and Odeon Cineplex in Mandeville at $14.8 million. At the same time, food sales at these cinemas were roughly $50.3 million, $18.9 million, $17 million and $6.6 million, respectively.