MOVIES : Off-Centerpiece : They’re Dreaming of a Green Christmas

While business at the nation’s box offices has been slumbering through August, September and early October, never fear: Hollywood already has visions of sugarplums for the holiday weeks from Thanksgiving Day to New Year’s Day.

A dozen or so major titles will be competing for your dollars, so the race is on--although the public isn’t yet aware of it--to start the promotion bandwagons. You’ll soon be catching wind of such movies as: “Hook,” starring Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman; Disney’s animated musical “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Addams Family,” based on the popular TV sitcom.

So far, the biggest splashes have been made for two films starring two of the industry’s biggest female stars--Bette Midler in “For the Boys” and Barbra Streisand in her much-anticipated first movie in four years, “The Prince of Tides,” a psychodrama based on the popular book by Pat Conroy, which Streisand also directed.

Streisand has raised her usually reticent profile with a recent Vanity Fair cover story, the release last month of her multi-disc “career” album, an upcoming “60 Minutes” segment and a carefully orchestrated program of preview screenings designed to get word-of-mouth moving. Sources say the star-director has held a close rein on just who could attend the showings and who could not--in all cases there was a fine mix of personal friends, the public and press, according to some who attended. In all cases, Streisand is said to have stipulated to Columbia Pictures that every seat in the house must be filled for her movie, which co-stars Nick Nolte.

Meanwhile, at 20th Century Fox, the thinking is to create a special image for “For the Boys,” a movie about two show-biz troupers (Midler and James Caan) who entertain the troops from World War II through Vietnam. “There’s a lot of movies coming out at the holidays. So when you have the goods, you need to get that message across,” says Tom Sherak, Fox executive vice president.

What the studio has done so far is buy unusually early three-page ads that were published last week in the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and the New York Times each heralding the movie, which is not due until Nov. 20.

“What we’re trying to do is say that we have something very special,” says Sherak. “It was primarily done for the media, in the media centers, in order to create a feel for this movie.”

The ads were followed by a direct mailing to the press of a full-color, 24-page, coffee-table-size booklet with photos from the movie that Sherak says was meant to underline the newspaper ads. The expensive format is rarely used by studios.

TriStar Pictures’ “Hook,” a multi-star, big-budget, Steven Spielberg extravaganza about Peter Pan versus the pirate Captain Hook, is due in theaters Dec. 11. But a few weeks before, you’ll start seeing tie-in deals in McDonald’s ads.

“We’re looking forward to December very happily,” says a Spielberg spokesman who was in no mood to give away any secrets. The first trailers for “Hook” with footage from the movie are just beginning to appear in theaters. While “Hook” may have hooked Big Macs, Walt Disney Pictures’ latest family entry, “Beauty and the Beast,” which opens Nov. 22, is joining up with Burger King for promotions. Other product tie-ins are expected,but a Disney spokesman would not elaborate.

It’s beginning to feel a lot like the holiday season over at Paramount Pictures, too, where the studio has “The Addams Family” slated for a Nov. 22 release and “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” opening on Dec. 13.

Rap star Hammer wrote and recorded a new song, “The Addams Groove,” for “The Addams Family” starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia and Christopher Lloyd.

“Star Trek VI” lands in theaters in the 25th anniversary year of the original television show. Not coincidentally, and fully encouraged by Paramount, there have been marathons of all the “Star Trek” movies held in 40 cities around the nation. Last month, on the actual 25th anniversary, a syndicated TV special that aired was hosted by “Star Trek’s” original crew leaders, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.