It was up, up and away at the boxoffice in 2007. Boxoffice swelled at home and abroad — but so did the costs of making and marketing movies, which grew at an even faster rate.

Domestic boxoffice returns from the U.S. and Canada hit a record $9.6 billion last year, a 5.4% increase over 2006, according to the final figures released Wednesday by the MPAA in its annual state-of-the-business report, which for the first time it compiled in partnership with Nielsen EDI. The figure represents grosses for all commercial releases in North America, not just those of the MPAA companies.

The story was much the same around the world as international boxoffice for all commercial moviegoing hit $17.1 billion, up nearly 5% from 2006. That brought the worldwide boxoffice total for 2007 to a record $26.7 billion. The MPAA companies’ portion of that total international tally of $17.1 billion in grosses was nearly $9.5 billion.

“All in all, 2007 proved a healthy year at the boxoffice,” MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman said. “We had a very good year domestically,” while the international returns were “also bullish.”

But though more money was flowing into Hollywood, more money also was flowing out.

The studios’ investment in the average movie’s negative cost rose to $70.8 million from $65.8 million in 2006. And since the MPAA doesn’t include the outside investment money that the studios now routinely solicit to co-finance many of their films in that calculation, the average production cost of a movie actually is substantially higher than that.

At the same time, the average marketing costs on a film rose from $34.5 million in 2006 to $35.9 million in 2007. As a result, the total average negative and marketing figure also hit a record: a forbidding $106.6 million.

The outlays on the part of the studios’ specialty divisions were even more dramatic. While the divisions that turn out potential Oscar winners — such as Disney’s Miramax, Paramount’s Vantage, Universal’s Focus and Fox’s Searchlight — may concentrate on producing, acquiring and releasing “smaller” movies, in their case, small is a relative term.

The subsidiaries’ average negative investment in 2007 rose to $49.2 million, while average marketing costs soared to $25.7 million. The total negative and marketing cost of the average specialty film soared to $74.8 million, up more than 54% over the comparable 2006 figure of $48.5 million.

“The Bucket List,” the buddy comedy starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman from Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., was the top film at U.S. and Canadian theaters with $19.5 million in ticket sales.

The movie topped Sony Corp.’s “First Sunday,” which opened in second place with $19 million, and “Juno” from News Corp.’s Fox Searchlight, in third place with $14 million, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers LLC.

“The Bucket List,” which went into wide release this weekend, is the story of two dying older men who set out to accomplish their last wishes. It overcame poor reviews, with only 43 positive write-ups of the 107 tracked on RottenTomatoes.com.

“`Bucket List’ opened better than I expected,” said Gitesh Pandya, chief executive officer of New York-based Box Office Guru LLC, in an interview. “It’s one of the few times a movie anchored by senior citizens could rule the box office at No. 1.”

Second-place “First Sunday,” starring Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan, tells the story of two petty criminals who rob their neighborhood church to pay a $17,000 debt.

“Juno,” starring Ellen Page and “Superbad” actor Michael Cerra, is a comedy about a pregnant teen. With $71.2 million in six weeks of release, it has evolved into a hit reminiscent of other independent films such as 2006’s “Little Miss Sunshine” and 2004’s “Sideways.”

`Juno’

“`Juno’ should eventually gross more than $100 million in North America, which is really good considering it cost less than $10 million to make,” Pandya said.

The action-adventure sequel “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” from Walt Disney Co. finished in fourth place with $11.5 million. Nicolas Cage reprises his role as history buff and treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates.

The film had taken in $187.3 million at U.S. theaters since its Dec. 21 debut, building on the success of the original. “National Treasure,” released in 2004, had worldwide sales of $347.5 million, according to Box Office Mojo LLC.