"But here’s the real story: despite becoming the first summer to ever yield multiple $400 million domestic-earners (Avengers and Dark Knight Rises), the estimated number of tickets sold will amount to roughly 532 million using the average ticket price of $8.02. Again, factoring out 3D prices that skew upward the estimated tickets sold by films such as The Avengers, The Amazing Spider-Man and Brave among others, that figure is arguably less than 530 million in actuality. Either way, even the 532 million ticket estimate represents over a 4% drop from summer 2011 and the lowest total since 1997 (520 million tickets)." — Number Crunch: The Untold Story of Summer 2012 — Inside Movies Since 1920