Reversing a long-standing practice, the trade and lobbying arm of the Hollywood studios won’t disclose the average costs of making and marketing movies.

For years, the Motion Picture Assn. of America has annually released a statistical analysis showing average movie costs of its six members, made up of the major studios and their specialty film labels.

But the data, closely watched in Hollywood and on Wall Street as a valuable tool to measure the cost trends of the industry, was conspicuously absent from the group’s Theatrical Market Statistics report for 2008, which was released Tuesday. MPAA chief Dan Glickman said the increasingly complex nature of film financing and distribution made it difficult to obtain reliable data.

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