Given that the price per movie at the theater is supposed to go up from an avg of $10 a person now to $18 a person this year (thanks to ethanol and inflation). I don't see avg income ma, pa, and their 2 kids spending $72 bucks a weekend especially when pa just lost his cushy UAW job.

This is just more proof that the MPAA is full of (sh)it. They say that they are recording about $3 billion a year in loss, and yet there are record setting numbers, and gains in profit. Perhaps they are like Einstein and cannot do simple arithmetic, cause you cannot get record setting gains and be losing that much money.

If someone wants to go to the movies, they will. Downloads don't stop a person from going to the movies. It only allows the curious individuals unwilling to pay for the movie to see it. So for each time someone downloads a movie you can't count that download as a loss in sales. In some cases, it can even draw more interest in the movies which may translate in to sales through DVD's, merchandise, or even ticket sales. In my situation, my co-worker often downloads movies. (They can't afford to go see them, and their spouse refuses to pay ticket prices.) Often, they will tell me if a movie is good or not and draws my interest in films that I often otherwise would not go to see. This person also downloaded "Lost" TV episodes when the show was still in season 1, now I'm hooked and have the DVD set!

Is the claim that they are losing $3 billion a year in illegal downloads referring to illegal downloads of movies currently in the theaters, or only those out to disk?

If so (does pertain to movies in theater), I understand this article. If not, then there is no reason to be comparing the loss in downloads of media after it's left the theater, to ticket sales that were all obtained while it was in the theater. Please do not misconstrue these two different areas.

than ever, it doesn't prove that people aren't downloading movies.

on one hand, they said they are lossing money and have illegal download problem..on the other hand...they are making big bucks..
then again....the ticket price keep going up, that's why people stop going...
if they are making money , why is our neighborhood tinsotown multi-plex that is only 5 yr old closed down?

The price of movies and the population increase should account for most of the increase if not all. Duh.