The numbers are in, and they show what studio execs likely feared and movie-goers likely suspected all along: Not a lot of people went to the movies this year. Box-office tracker Hollywood.com says that "an estimated 1.275 billion tickets sold" in 2011, a 4.8 percent decrease from 2010 making for "the smallest movie audience since 1995," reports the AP. A hodgepodge of reasons for the sour showing were cited in the AP and ABC News reports. Among them: Too many sequels, too many kids movies, too many distracting gadgets, the bad economy, high ticket prices, and, something being called an "'Avatar' hangover" from 2010.

There were some high-grossing bright spots like the latest installments of the Harry Potter, Transformers, and Twilight series, the three top grossing movies of the year, but still. Maybe Batman can save Hollywood in 2012. Or studios could just, you know, go on recycling films they already know people like.

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