Hollywood studios poised to post record year at the box office.

(From Agence France Presse)

Hollywood's top movie studios are poised to post a record year with around 9.2 billion dollars in ticket receipts despite a US economic slump and rampant movie piracy, industry sources said.

"There is every indication that 2002 will be a bumper year for the major studios which have had a number of big blockbusters under their belts," Paul Degarabedian of box office trackers Exhibitor Relations said Monday.

Final 2002 box office figures for the top studios were due out later this week, but early projections indicated that 9.2 billion dollars worth of tickets were sold, up by about 10 percent over last year's record. …