For Best Film, It's Disney 3, SKG 1

By JAMES BATES

Feb. 16, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

They fight in court, in the press, over animated films and at the box office. So why not over an Oscar statue?

This year’s Academy Awards battle is shaping up as a Goliath (Walt Disney Co.) vs. a David (DreamWorks SKG).

Boasting two best picture nominations in “The Sixth Sense” and “The Insider,” and a third, “The Cider House Rules,” from its autonomous Miramax Films unit, Disney on Tuesday pulled in the most nominations of any studio. Disney’s Buena Vista distribution unit had 17. Add to that the 14 from Miramax, and the two entities clearly dominated this year’s nominations.

“How can you not be anything but thrilled when people recognize the artistry of movies?” said Walt Disney Studios Chairman Peter Schneider.

But DreamWorks boasts the clear favorite in “American Beauty,” a dark comedy universally lauded by critics that was a big success at the box office as well.

Its eight nominations--which run across the board through the acting, directing and writing categories--were the highest for any single picture and accounted for all of the DreamWorks tally.

The juiciness of a head-to-head showdown between Disney and DreamWorks has some in Hollywood salivating.

From nearly the day it was formed in 1994 by mogul David Geffen, director Steven Spielberg and former Disney Studios chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, DreamWorks has been a thorn in Disney’s side. DreamWorks has sought to knock Disney off its perch as the king of feature animation films. Last year, Disney suffered through an embarrassing court proceeding in a breach-of-contract case brought by Katzenberg that ended when Disney agreed to settle for about $250 million.

The two battled last year over the best picture, albeit more indirectly. DreamWorks and partner Paramount Pictures had the early favorite in Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” but faced an onslaught from Miramax and its feisty heads, the brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein. They successfully pushed “Shakespeare in Love,” a film made with financing from Universal Pictures, to the front by the time Oscar night came around. Both sides ended up sniping at each other’s election tactics.

As for the other studios this year, Warner Bros. was the only other studio to get a best picture nomination, with “The Green Mile.” Paramount Pictures gathered 11 nominations; 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. had nine each. Sony Pictures received eight. Universal, disappointed in only one nomination for “The Hurricane,” collected five overall.

Disney faces a particular dilemma in how to exploit its nominated films. The thriller “The Sixth Sense,” released in August, was a huge hit, reaping $280 million to date at the domestic box office. Should the studio give it much of a push, and expand it back into theaters, when most moviegoers have probably already seen it?

By contrast, “The Insider,” about a tobacco industry whistle-blower, has taken in just $26 million and will show a loss for the studio. Disney Chairman Michael Eisner is known to have singled out the movie’s financial performance for criticism. So is it worth spending a lot of money to try to get audiences to bite the second time around?

Schneider says Disney plans to fully utilize the nominations for both films. He hopes to push the domestic box office for “The Sixth Sense” past the $300-million mark, he said, and the number of theaters showing “The Insider” will be expanded as well.

“It’s been recognized for what it is, which is a really good movie,” Schneider said of “The Insider.”

Mark Gill, head of Miramax’s Los Angeles operation, vows that Miramax will make a major marketing push with “Cider House” as the company does every year for its nominees. To date, “Cider House” has reaped a disappointing $23 million at the box office.

Hollywood executives sometimes fear that box-office performance will influence voting because members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences may believe that an unsuccessful film isn’t worthy, and that a hugely successful movie doesn’t need to be rewarded further.

Former Disney Studio chief Joe Roth, who left the company last month to form his own venture, said it is gratifying that voters didn’t appear to be influenced in this manner: “It’s nice they didn’t hold how little money ‘The Insider’ made against it, and nice they didn’t hold how much money ‘The Sixth Sense’ made against it.”

Schneider said his only disappointment was that “Toy Story 2”--a joint production between Disney and computer animation studio Pixar Inc.--failed to get a best picture nomination, but he was thrilled with the overall tally.

“They are a credit to the artists who worked on the films, the executives the artists worked with at the studio and to Joe Roth,” Schneider said.

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NOMINATIONS BY STUDIOS

Buena Vista: 17

Miramax *: 14

Paramount * ** ***: 11

Fox: 9

Warner Bros. ***: 9

Sony/Columbia: 8

DreamWorks: 8

USA Films: 7

New Line (includes Fine Line): 5