Tinseltown in danger of losing its glitter as audience numbers fall

Los Angeles

AS Hollywood prepared to celebrate its achievements at the Golden Globes on Sunday, new figures show all might not be well in the film industry, with attendances at a quarter-century low.

The last 12 months have seen huge successes, with Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Beauty and the Beast raking in more than half a billion dollars each at home.

Wonder Woman and several Marvel superhero movies including Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and Thor: Ragnarok also have more than pulled their weight.

But the handful of hits has masked a decline of almost 6 per cent on the year to 1.2 billion tickets sold, the lowest total since 1992, according to Box Office Mojo.

It's all a stark contrast to the heyday of 2002, the busiest year since annual totals were first counted in 1980, when moviegoers bought 337 million more…