Ebb and Flow Ticket Sales

Context: I am on the media-l list serve and this article was posted. It is an intriguing idea with very cool technology. New York Times has an article about movie ticket sales from 1986 to the present. Instead of presenting the information in a typical chart, they have used some unusual technology to create an interactive graphic that shows ticket sales.

How I could use this in class -- I have never really cared about ticket sales in the past, but had pressed to use this in some activity involving production, I could have students analyze the chart with these questions in mind: What could account to the popularity of some movies over others? Does the month of the movie release have anything to do with popularity? How does director or subject matter affect sales? Why are there some years when movies don't do well at the box office? Is it the movies themselves or an economic reason? What months are the worst for ticket sales?

For the text of the article see http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html