2006 a bad year for movies? Well it wasn't at the U.S. Box Office, especially if your Sony. Variety are reporting that in 2006, the movie industry took in $9.13 billion in Box Office gate reciepts, a 3.4% increase on last year's figures. Although it does fall short slightly of 2004's $9.21 billion. Sony were the real winners of the year, taking in 18.59% ($1.69 billion) of the total takings with hits like Casino Royale, The Da Vinci Code and Talledaga Nights. Although with their Playstation 3 disaster, some of that profit may just be eaten away somewhat. The rest of the big studio takings look like this, with these movies being among the top earners.... Disney - $1.47 billion - Pirates of the Caribbean 2, Cars Fox - $1.4 billion - X-Men 3: The Last Stand, Borat Warner Brothers - $1.06 billion - Superman Returns, Happy Feet Dreamworks - $961.3 milliion - Over the Hedge To see a full list of facts and figures click here to visit Coming Soon Is the "panic" over then. Was anyone really worried about the state of movies after making over $8.83 billion last year? source - variety, coming soon