Despite billion-dollar summer blockbusters "The Avengers" and "The Dark Knight Rises," movie ticket sales are down ... a lot.
According to The Wrap, summer ticket sales dropped nearly 20 million from 545 last year to 526 million summer 2012.
The total summer film gross clocked in at $4.3 billion, less than last year's $4 billion.
It's not just this year that summer ticket sales have felt a slump, they've been on the decline for the past decade.
Viewing ticket sales from the first weekend of May until the Labor Day weekend, the slide began back in 2000 when there was a huge drop-off in 50 million summer movie tickets sold.
A big surge came in 2002 with the simultaneous releases of "Spider-Man," "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," "Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones," and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."
Since then, it's been one big decline with rising ticket sales and the influx of IMAX and 3-D showings.
Take a look at the dip in summer movie ticket sales over the past ten years. All numbers are taken from Hollywood.com.
