Last year was the highest grossing box office year in New Zealand cinema history.
Movie-goers spent $176.5 million in 2010, a rise of 3.8% on 2009, the NZ Motion Picture Distributors' Association announced today.
Screenings of 3D films contributed 17.5% of the total with Avatar, released in December 2009, bringing in the most money.
However, the highest grossing film released last year was New Zealand Film Commission-financed Boy, which grossed $9.3 million.
Boy was shot in Waihau Bay - in the North Island region of Eastland - and is set in the 1980s.
Mid-year 2010 proved particularly strong with releases like Karate Kid and Toy Story 3.
Association president Robert Crockett said last year had been "spectacular".
"The big screen offered an exceptionally diverse range of great films and fantastic new experiences which the New Zealand public has definitely embraced," he said.
Crockett said 3D continued to be popular with audiences and cited Alice In Wonderland and Voyage Of The Drawn Treader as two hits.
