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THE NOUGHTIES:WHAT WAS the biggest surprise cinema put our way in the first 10 years of the new century? Well, you could argue that it was the same shock the medium delivered in each of the previous four decades: despite all predictions to the contrary, the theatrical exhibition of movies survived. Indeed, the business thrived, writes DONALD CLARKE

This summer, thanks to financial leviathans such as Terminator Salvationand Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince(hey, nobody is saying the films are all good), total box-office takings were bigger than ever before.