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OE for reference:

Overview:
This passage presents you with two pieces of information: the first says that, overall, box office receipts at movie theaters increased significantly last year; and the second says that the number of movie theaters that went bankrupt last year increased sharply. The first piece of information, as the passage points out, seems to indicate that the film industry overall is prospering. The second clearly points in the opposite direction. So there is an apparent discrepancy between what is indicated by the two pieces of information.
To answer the question, you need to pick out the piece of information that helps to explain why the increase in bankruptcies and the overall increase in box office receipts occurred during the same period.

The Correct Answer:

C (C) tells us that last year's box office success was not widely distributed among movie theaters but was enjoyed only by a select group of theaters. So even though box office receipts increased 40 percent last year, most theaters were not in a position to benefit from this increase. At the same time, (C) suggests that a large number of theaters had a bad year last year because the films they showed were not successful. So it is not surprising that a lot of movie theaters went bankrupt at the same time that box office receipts taken as a whole went up and the film industry overall made high profits.

The Incorrect Answer Choices:

A Since it is reasonable to think that at least some of the increased cost of producing a film would be passed on to movie theaters, (A) suggests that movie theaters probably have to pay more for a film now than they did 10 years ago. This might help explain why, even with high box office receipts, movie theaters now might have more difficulty making a profit than they did 10 years ago. But the change described in (A) took place over a 10-year period. It does not explain why last year—a year in which overall box office receipts increased 40 percent from the previous year—twice as many movie theaters went bankrupt as in the preceding 2 years combined.

B If many of the theaters that went bankrupt last year were theaters at which ticket prices fell, then we might have at least a partial explanation of why those theaters went bankrupt. (B), however, doesn't tell us this. Moreover, (B) leaves it completely mysterious why movie theaters on the verge of bankruptcy would have lowered their ticket prices in a year when people were spending far more money on movie tickets than they had in the previous year. So (B) does not help to resolve the apparent discrepancy.

D Greatly increased film advertising might explain why overall box office receipts went up last year. But since, according to (D), most of the costs of that advertising were absorbed by the producers and distributors of the films and not by the theater owners, (D) makes it even more puzzling why theater bankruptcies increased so much last year.

E (E) suggests that movie theaters would have greater profits from sales of soft drinks and snack foods in years with increased box office receipts. Thus, (E) makes last year's increase in bankruptcies even more puzzling, heightening the apparent discrepancy rather than resolving it.
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