The table below shows the amount spent on movie theater tickets in the U. S. from 1997 to 2003. Year Spending (billions of dollars)
1997 6.3
1998 6.9
1999 7.9
2000 8.6
2001 9.0
2002 9.6
2003 9.9

(a) Use a graphing calculator or spreadsheet program to find a quadratic model that best fits this data. Let t represent the year, with t=0 in 1997. Round each coefficient to two decimal places.
Pt =

(b) Based on this model, how much would you expect to be spent on movie theater tickets in 2008?

billion dollars

(c) When would you expect movie theater ticket expenditure to fall to $5 billion? Give your answer as a calendar year (ex: 1997).

During the year