Every few months it seems that someone else comes along and declares that the movie industry is on the verge of imploding, but it’s hard to take these things seriously when Hollywood continues to break records for box office revenue. In 2012, the box office receipts in North America totaled $10.8 billion, and then one year later that record was surpassed with $10.9 billion. Now that the latest moviegoing year has just concluded, it looks as though the 2014 box office numbers have finally tumbled a bit. However, while the drop in revenue isn’t too drastic, it is a bit more disconcerting to note that overall attendance was way down. In fact, the number of tickets sold were the lowest they’ve been in two decades. Is this just an anomaly or is it a bad sign for the future of cinema?

According to THR, an estimated 1.26 billion North American consumers purchased movie tickets between Jan. 1st and Dec. 31st, 2014, which is the lowest number since 1995 when 1.21 billion tickets were sold. That’s a 6 percent drop from last year and a 20 percent drop from the all-time high of 1.57 billion set in 2002. Overall revenue for the box office in 2014 is down 5 percent from 2013. Clearly increased ticket prices have helped offset these issues, but could they also be keeping moviegoers away?

Most of the blame for this year’s decline is apparently being placed on a lacklustre line-up of summer blockbusters, but based on reviews alone this year’s crop was stronger than usual. So does that really hold water? It’s possible that some of the disappointing blockbusters from previous years scared off moviegoers this year. It’s also possible that many moviegoers are turning to VOD and other alternatives, not to mention competing entertainment like TV and video games. Why do you think movie attendance was so low in 2014?