As movie fans prepare to tune in Sunday to the Academy Awards, studios are buckling down to face the less-glamorous business of keeping revenue up as changing consumer habits are dragging it down.

The number of movie tickets sold in North America fell 7% in 2010 to 1.3 billion, according to data from the Motion Picture Association of America released Wednesday. Thanks to a 5% uptick in average ticket prices, box-office revenue held steady at $10.6 billion.

Even...