Loadsamoney!!

George Bush Jnr may be worried sick about the American economy, but the head honchos in Hollywood are sitting pretty it seems, with the news that 2001 was the best year for the cinema box office since 1959. Figures released yesterday (5 March 2002) showed that the total number of dollars flowing into Hollywood's coffers last year was a whopping $8.41bn, up 5% from the previous year and up by a third since the 1990s. '2001 was the greatest box office year in film history,' said Motion Picture Association Of America president Jack Valenti. 'Some predicted that theaters would soon be empty, that Americans would shun the movie experience and stay home to nurse their raw and abused nerve edges, but that did not happen... Going to the movies is the American remedy for the anxieties of daily life.' All in all, it's quite a turn-up for the books for the industry. Midway through 2001 the media was all doom and gloom about the year's offerings, but the critical failure of top blockbusters such as The Mummy Returns and Tomb Raider clearly didn't translate into box office disasters.