While movie attendance in theaters tumbled, the American market share rose to close to 90 percent by the mid-1990's.

By contrast, movie attendance has increased 8.1 percent from 2000 to 2004, according to the association.

Indeed, movie attendance usually drops off when school starts in the fall and picks up again at Thanksgiving.

The film also takes aim at television and the damage it was doing to movie attendance in the 1950s.

The report said movie attendance was at an all-time high, and ticket sales reached a record $6.4 billion last year.

But he estimates that movie attendance in general will grow 2.7 percent a year, on average, from 2000 to 2003.

In 1979, movie attendance rose to an all-time high, but recorded a gradual downfall since then.

All of them opened theaters when movie attendance was shrinking.

"In 1940, movie attendance was at 3.1 billion," he said.

For at least half a dozen years, the Japanese film industry has been trying to cope with a severe drop in movie attendance.