The Hollywood Reporter weighs in with 2008’s projected box office tally from Nielsen EDI (the official keepers of the box office numbers for the MPAA and NATO) and it looks mighty sweet:
Meanwhile, buoyed by good weekday numbers and potentially strong holds over the holiday weekend, overall domestic boxoffice is poised to set a record. As of Sunday, 2008’s year-to-date boxoffice stood at $9.45 billion, according to Nielsen EDI. By the close of business Sunday — bringing down the curtain on the boxoffice year — 2008 should surpass 2007’s record haul of $9.62 billion by a couple of percentage points.
The final admissions tally won’t be known until the end of January, when the year’s average ticket price is calculated, but we expect it to be a little behind 2007.