Hollywood Records $ 8 Billion Sales This Year

Even with the influence of the 9.11 terror and the slowdown of the international economy, Hollywood is expecting to set a new record of 8 billion dollars sales this year.

According to `ACNielson EDI` U.S. firms that provide data related with the motion pictures, the total income of the box office in the U.S. has increased by 9.6 percent, amounting 6.57 billion dollars by now. Moreover, the `Monsters, Inc.` playing from last week, ranks at No.1 for two consecutive weeks and `Harry Potter and the Socerer`s Stone` is also expected to attract more movie buffs since the movie was made based on a series of best selling novel, `Harry Potter`.

ACNielson EDI anticipated that the final income of this year would record 8.2 billion dollars, breaking the record of 7.7 billion dollars last year. 8.2 billion dollars is equal to 5.5 percent of Korea`s GDP, 457.4 billion dollars.

Movie Critic Chun Chan-Il analyzed, ``the U.S. terror seems to have accelerated the sense of escape from reality, consequently bringing about the boom of move industry. In addition, the quality of the films that have been released this year such as Shrek is evaluated as the best in the history.``

kimsk@donga.com