MUMBAI: The National Association of Theatre Owners has revealed that Americans paid an average of $7.88 per ticket in the second quarter down from $7.95 in the first three months of the year.

The decline reflects the enormous first-quarter box-office collections for Avatar and the premium ticket prices movie theatre owners charge patrons for the privilege of viewing such fare. Theatres generally charge more than $3 for tickets to 3D movies.

Avatar opened 18 December and roped in $457 million of its record $750 million in North America from 1 January to March 30. Also pumping up the first-quarter average was a $334 million domestic grosser Alice in Wonderland that released on 5 March and collected $299 million by 30 March while How to Train Your Dragon registered $53 million of its $218 million by the month‘s end after releasing on 26 March.

The second quarter featured just two 3D releases. Toy Story 3 opened on 18 June and raked in $251 million of its $380 million by 30 June while Shrek Forever After fetched $231 million of its total collection of $235 million after releasing on 21 May.

The average ticket price of $7.90 for the first half means the industry‘s $6.48 billion in year-to-date box-office works out to roughly 820 million movie-theatre admissions.