A Record, but With Qualifiers

It’s now official: 2001 was the largest-grossing year ever at North American movie theaters, the first time the motion picture industry topped the $8-billion level in admissions.

The big hits were bigger, with six releases topping the $200-million mark: “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” (which just crossed the $300-million mark), “Shrek,” “Monsters, Inc.” “Rush Hour 2,” “The Mummy Returns” and, over the past weekend, “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.”

The previous high was four, in 1999, the year of “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace,” “The Sixth Sense” and the sequels to “Toy Story” and “Austin Powers.”

While the major studio blockbusters received more than their share of media attention, the studios exerted damage control over the year’s major duds, which came and went without the kind of ballyhoo that tarnished such classic catastrophes as “Ishtar” and “Heaven’s Gate,” though those flops cost as much (adjusted for inflation) as some of this year’s flops, such as “Monkeybone,” “Town and Country,” “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within,” “Driven” and “The Majestic,” all of which had sticker prices of at least $70 million.

Curiously, more was written about the relative disappointment of “Pearl Harbor,” a three-hour war movie that ended up grossing $450 million around the world, the kind of disappointment every studio wishes it had on a more regular basis.

According to EDI/Nielsen, which started its calculations on Jan. 5, 2001, the year ended up with $8.13 billion in gross receipts, whereas the competing tracking firm Exhibitor Relations, which calculates starting on Jan. 1, is reporting $8.35 billion.

Almost two-thirds of the increased revenue from 2001 came from the top 10 releases, which often debuted on more than 5,000 screens.

Nonetheless, ticket sales remained flat. EDI calculates admissions at slightly below the 1998 record of 1.44 billion tickets, while Exhibitor Relations tags it slightly above, with 1.49 billion. The average ticket price was calculated at $5.60, up 20 cents from the previous year.

According to EDI President Tom Borys, admissions have remained generally flat for many years now and aren’t expected to vary much in the future; the American and Canadian public’s moviegoing patterns are pretty much set. Future gains in revenue for the industry, he says, will therefore come from higher ticket prices, foreign box office and the increasingly lucrative after-life of video, television and, more recently, DVD sales.

The advent of the megaplex in the mid-1990s was supposed to provide more theaters for more movies. But while some of these complexes house as many as 20 auditoriums, it’s rare for there to be more than a half-dozen movies playing at a given time, particularly in summer and during the holidays, the movie industry’s best seasons.

The stronger performers, such as “Harry Potter” or “Planet of the Apes,” are often allotted more than one-third of those screens, which accounts for their gigantic opening weekend takes--and, often, their precipitous second weekend drops. Gone are the days when wary patrons sat out the first one or two weeks of a hit film’s run because of long lines. Multiplexes can now accommodate as much business as a film can manage its first weekend simply by shifting lesser movies out and offering a maximum number of seats and staggered showtimes for the weekend’s hit title.

The public’s romance with 2001’s “event” movies was thus passionate and immediate, but usually short-lived. Even the biggest movie of the year, “Harry Potter,” did about one-third of its business in the first five days of release.

But the “one weekend” theory of filmgoing is somewhat misleading. The maxim “If you blitz advertise it, they will come” didn’t prevent some lesser-hyped movies from slipping into theaters and building a loyal following in later weeks--diverse titles such as “Memento,” “The Others,” “Legally Blonde,” “The Princess Diaries” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” Movie audiences still like to “discover” movies and tell their friends.

“The specialized film actually did quite well this year,” says Borys, who mentions that two of last year’s late arrivals, “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Traffic,” actually did more than 90% of their business in 2001.

Notably, family films were the best performers in 2001--five of the six movies that grossed $200 million were family titles. With increasing pressure from Washington, studios assiduously trimmed films to avoid the R rating and many theaters more stringently policed ticket-buyers younger than age 17. As a result, says Borys, only 27% of admissions were for R-rated films this year, compared to 35% in 2000. Just two of the 20 top-grossing films, “Hannibal” and “American Pie 2,” carried an R rating.

The summer season, when about 40% of tickets are sold, was a standout, with 14 of the year’s top 20 movies coming from May to early September.

The films released this holiday season have more than held their own against last year, one of the better periods in recent memory with such major hits as “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “Cast Away” and “What Women Want.”

This year’s star is “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” which in less than three weeks has grossed more than $205 million, capturing about $23 million over the past weekend. “Lord” won the American Film Institute’s award for best picture on Saturday along with technical awards, fueling speculation that it could be among the best picture nominees when the Academy Award nominations are announced next month. That could prolong “Rings’” theatrical life and give “Harry Potter” a run for the final box-office crown among 2001 releases.

“Harry Potter” took a post-holiday drop to a still-handy $6.1 million over the weekend, becoming the first movie in almost two years to gross more than $300 million.

Another potential Oscar candidate is “A Beautiful Mind,” starring Russell Crowe, which leaped to second place in its first wide-release weekend on 1,855 screens with an estimated $17 million. “Mind” has already mined more than $38 million at the box office and looks to end up in the $100-million arena.

Now in third place, “Ocean’s Eleven” is still nimble, with $11.8 million expected in its fifth weekend. The heist romp has now purloined more than $150 million. The animated movie “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius” is a family hit, with $9.2 million over the past weekend and a smart $62.5 million in only three weeks. “Monsters, Inc.” grossed approximately $4 million in its 10th weekend, pushing its total to about $245 million.

Two of the season’s quirkier titles are doing strong business in general release. Wes Anderson’s “The Royal Tenenbaums,” a wry look at an eccentric, dysfunctional family, climbed to fifth place in its first national break. On only 751 screens, “Tenenbaums” grossed an excellent $8.8 million, bringing it to $21 million. Cameron Crowe’s “Vanilla Sky,” a remake of the experimental Spanish drama “Open Your Eyes” starring Tom Cruise, is holding better than Cruise’s last offbeat effort, “Eyes Wide Shut.” Its fourth weekend added about $7.2 million, elevating the romantic drama to more than $81 million to date.

At this rate “Vanilla Sky,” could be another $100-million grosser for the consistent Cruise.

Michael Mann’s boxing biography “Ali,” however, is demonstrating wobbly legs. Second-weekend grosses were down by almost half from the first weekend to a relatively lightweight $7.6 million. The $49 million collected to date is somewhat disappointing in light of expectations for the story of legendary boxing champion Muhammad Ali, especially given star Will Smith’s proven drawing power.

In eighth place, the Meg Ryan romance “Kate & Leopold” is doing OK business, with $6.7 million in its second weekend and $31 million so far. The sci-fi drama “Impostor” didn’t get much of a toehold in its first weekend in 1,870 theaters, with a weak $3.2 million expected.

Up and comers, which will go into wider release in the coming weeks, include Robert Altman’s British ensemble film “Gosford Park,” which expanded to 131 theaters over the weekend, boasting a strong $1.5 million and $2.2 million to date.

“In the Bedroom” also fared well as it climbed to 207 screens for a $1.7 million take and $4.3 million to date. “The Shipping News” is coasting with $1.2 million expected in 213 theaters and $4.3 million so far.

The standout among these seems to be the Somalia war drama “Black Hawk Down,” which was selling out on four screens, grossing $200,000 over the weekend, taking it to $566,000 before its Jan. 18 national release.

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Top 5 grosses for 2001

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Box office and admission totals over last five years

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