Holiday movie race
heating up
Hollywood is readying for the second major
race of the year. Following a blockbuster summer dominated by movies like
"Saving Private Ryan" and "There's Something About Mary," the holiday
movie season promises just as much diversity in content.
And there's plenty at stake for those who make the movies and distribute
them: money, jobs, reputations, and, well, even more money.
Packed into the frantic period between Thanksgiving and Christmas are 17
major film openings.
"Christmas and Thanksgiving is really the place where movies can make a
killing at the box office," says Entertainment Weekly movie editor Mark
Harris. "Movie grosses just soar for every single movie," earning about $2
million more per day at the box office than during the longer, and thus more
lucrative, summer season.
Universal respect
Going into the season, Paramount is --
so far -- this year's lead horse in
earnings. Disney is ahead of 20th
Century Fox by a nose, with Sony
rounding out the top four. Coming in last
of the major studios is Universal, in ninth
place.
"There's no question that Universal has a
lot riding on this fall," says Andrew
Hines, who follows the box office for
Daily Variety. "The company has been,
you know, really in the dumps for most of the year. They haven't really had a
hit this year."
Variety editor Peter Bart says Universal's troubles actually started when
"Meet Joe Black," a remake of the 1934 film "Death Takes a Holiday,"
missed its summer release date.
"Universal had hoped that 'Meet Joe Black' would be their big summer
picture, and they just couldn't get it ready," says Bart. "So the only picture
they had left for summer, basically, was 'Out Of Sight.' That was their big
summer picture -- George Clooney picture. It didn't really work very well."
So Universal is trying to make up lost ground by entering four movies over
the holidays.
'Meet Joe Black' is a gamble
First out of the gate is "Meet Joe Black."
It opened this past weekend before the
official start of the holiday season,
following a trend for some studios to get
a movie established before the big crush
of Thanksgiving week openings.
The movie grossed $15.6 million in its
debut weekend, third on the box office
list.
Harris says "Meet Joe Black" is a big bet by last-place Universal Studios.
"'Meet Joe Black' is a gamble," Harris says. "It's a very, very expensive
movie. It is trading almost entirely on the appeal of Brad Pitt. It's obviously
going for an audience of women 25 and older, and hoping to get a lot of men
and couples in there, too."
Keeping "Joe Black" company this past weekend is a Sony screamer.
"'I Still Know What You Did Last Summer' is going for the 'Scream'
audience," says Harris. "They want teen-agers who are just hungry for
another horror movie."
"I Still Know ..." came in second this past weekend, reaping $17.5 million.
Sony's marketing chief, Bob Levin, had originally planned to open the movie
on November 20, but juggled the release date to avoid competing with the
Will Smith/Gene Hackman movie, "Enemy of the State."
Levin, like all marketing chiefs, essentially plays poker with a calendar.
"Some of us are bullies, and we think we've got the strongest hand and we'll
play a card very early," Levin says.
'Celebrity' sighting
The next weekend sees the competition really heat up when the studios
make the big Thanksgiving push. Opening are "A Bug's Life," the sequel to
"Babe," Drew Barrymore's comedy "Home Fries," and "A Civil Action,"
John Travolta's legal drama, which is being positioned as an Oscar
contender.
"This is where it gets tough," says Harris. "Is there room for 'A Bug's Life'
and 'Babe' and the second weekend of 'Rugrats?' No, there is not. That is
spreading a single audience, which is young children and families, too thin.
Zig when they zag
For smaller studios, the trick to
competing against the big guys is to get
into a race you can win.
"We try to zig when everybody else is
zagging," says Mitchell Goldman of New
Line Cinema.
Goldman distributes and markets movies
for New Line, a medium-sized studio
owned by Time-Warner, which also
owns CNN. Goldman had a movie ready for Christmas, "Blast From the
Past," but he moved it.
"It's a perfect Christmas movie, but as we saw the competition come into
place -- 'You've Got Mail' from Warner Brothers, which is surely going to
be a blockbuster; 'Stepmom,' with Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts -- we
decided to pass on a wide release at Christmas," says Goldman.
Universal is opening "Psycho," a shot-for-shot remake of the Hitchcock film,
on December 4 during a lull before the big Christmas rush.
Two weeks later, "You've Got Mail" opens with the likable Meg Ryan and
Tom Hanks. And while mom and dad are getting the mail, Spielberg's
DreamWorks is counting on the kids parking in front of their big, animated
Moses fable, "Prince of Egypt."
"'Prince of Egypt' is an enormous gamble for DreamWorks," says Harris.
"It's a very expensive film. The question is: can they be all things to all
people? Can they sell it as an action movie to young men, and a family movie
to families, and a religious movie to what they're calling the faith community?"
CHRISTMAS DAY
Christmas Day has the highest number of
studio releases for any day of the
season.
"That's a little too much in the way of
product opening on Christmas day,
actually," says Variety's Bart. "They're
going to bump each other off. That's a
shame."
The remake of the 1949 movie "Mighty Joe Young" hopes to snag some of
that cash on Christmas Day. And then there's the star-studded war film "The
Thin Red Line," heralding the return of director Terrence Malick after a
20-year absence.
Also opening on Christmas is the previously mentioned "Stepmom" with Julia
Roberts and Susan Sarandon. Directed by Chris Columbus, it's an Oscar
contender aimed at families and women.
Also on Christmas: Robin William's "Patch Adams," where he plays a doctor
who heals with humor. A sci-fi thriller, "The Faculty," rounds out the pack.
But Harris says one of the real joys of the holiday movie season is finding an
overlooked gem. "A movie that comes out of left field, then captures your
imagination in a way that big studio movies don't always," says Harris. "We'll
just have to wait and see what it is."
