The lustre of the silver screen wasn't enough to draw movie-goers to Canadian theatres in 2005, as attendance plunged by 7.8 per cent from the previous year, according to a new survey.

In a year of films such as Brokeback Mountain, Crash, Syriana and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Canadian cinemas sold just under 105.2 million tickets, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The sharp decline followed a year of modest gains in 2004 and came despite Famous Players' policy of lowering the adult ticket price to $10 in most of Canada.

The industry reported that Canadians could not be lured into the cinema in the summer, and the blockbusters that were released — including Star Wars: Episode III, Batman Begins and War of the Worlds — were less successful than the summer films of other years.

The growing popularity of cheaper home entertainment equipment, such as DVD players, may also have kept Canadians home.

This year's crops of summer releases, including the fifth Harry Potter film, Hairspray and a new edition of Die Hard, are expected to be more successful at the box office.  

In 2005, each Canadian made an average of 3.2 visits to the movies in 2005, with Albertans the most avid movie-goers, at 5.2 visits a year.

Attendance at cinemas in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan exceeded the national average, while Canadians in Ontario and Eastern Canada made fewer visits to the cinema.

Theatres in Ontario accounted for 40 per cent of cinema revenue, and Quebec, with a steep decline in consumer spending on movie tickets, accounted for 20 per cent.

Declining ticket sales cut into earnings for Canada's major theatre chains — with revenue down 5.3 per cent to $1.2 billion, and a huge profit drop, to $29 million from $110 million in 2004.