Change Their Name to the $pice Girls

The results won’t be official until Wednesday, when year-end figures are reported by SoundScan, but the news appears to be good for the music industry. After two years of negligible increases, album sales are expected to be up as much as 6% this year, according to SoundScan CEO Mike Shalett. “Considering that last year’s [growth] was less than half a percent,” says Shalett, “that’s a significant increase.” Shalett credits the increase in sales to “the variety of music that has been available this year--whether it’s song-driven bands, country, R&B;, soundtracks or hip-hop. It has been a something-for-everybody type of year.” That diversity is reflected in the list of the year’s biggest-selling artists, which ranges from teen pop (the Spice Girls, Hanson) to alternative rock (the Wallflowers, No Doubt) and from country (Garth Brooks, LeAnn Rimes) to hip-hop (the Notorious B.I.G., Sean “Puffy” Combs). The Spice Girls led the way with their debut album selling about 5 million copies.

And That’s Without the Spice Girls Movie

The final numbers aren’t in yet, but with New Year’s Day approaching, the task of summing up 1997 is well underway. Exhibitor Relations, a company that tracks movie box office, has come up with some intriguing figures in summing up the year. It’s no surprise, for instance, that Columbia Pictures’ sci-fi comedy “Men in Black,” starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, was the year’s big winner, grossing $249.5 million in North America. But what was the year’s smallest-grossing film? Out of 395 movies tracked by Exhibitor Relations, the bottom spot was occupied by “Farmer and Chase,” from Arrow Releasing. The film, which starred Todd Field, Lara Flynn Boyle and Ben Gazarra, came out Feb. 7 and to date has made only $1,323 at the domestic box office. The movie that had the biggest opening weekend of the year was Universal Pictures’ dinosaur-run-amok sequel, “Lost World: Jurassic Park,” from director Steven Spielberg. It made $92.7 million over the four-day Memorial Day holiday weekend. The movies that had the longest runs at the local cineplex (through Dec. 21) were the teen thriller “Scream” (31 weeks), the animated Disney release “Hercules” (27 weeks), a restored version of “Contempt” (26 weeks), “Men in Black” (26 weeks) and Disney’s live-action “George of the Jungle” (23 weeks). In what could be a trend, major studios released slightly fewer movies in 1997 than the previous year--158 this year versus 160. But independents released more films--237 this year compared to 187. Exhibitor Relations also found that through Dec. 15, the top 50 films released in North America grossed 9% better as a group than the top 50 films did the previous year. That made for a $305-million difference at the box office, or the equivalent of one huge blockbuster. And, there are these tidbits: Through Dec. 15, there were 13 movies that made between $75 million and $300 million at the domestic box office; 56 films that took in between $25 million and $75 million; and 33 films that made between $10 million and $25 million. By New Year’s Day, Exhibitor Relations projected, total box office will climb over $6 billion--the largest total ever--with attendance reaching 1.4 billion.

And the Quintet of the Year: The Spice Girls!

Let’s see, Barbara Walters recently named Prince William as her Most Fascinating Person of 1997. Tonight, A&E; presents its “Biography of the Year” (5 and 9 p.m.) and CBS airs “Ladies Home Journal’s Most Fascinating Woman of 1997” (10 p.m.). Not to be outdone, on Wednesday at midnight, MSNBC ushers in 1998 by naming its “Person of the Year.” All this falls under the rubric of “The Cheapest and Fastest Programming to Produce at Year’s-End When Most People Are Eating, Drinking and Watching Football.” So, with that kind of inspiration, we humbly suggest a few other such shows that should’ve been made (and the worthy subjects): the Weather Channel’s Bluster of the Year (El Nino); the Food Network’s Dish of the Year (KCBS’ restaurant expose); the Golf Channel’s Bogey of the Year (Fuzzy Zoeller); and E! Entertainment Channel’s Most Entertaining Couple of the Year (Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson . . . with Janet Reno and Louis Freeh a close second).

--Compiled by Times staff writers and contributors