Sony’s grades top the class of ’02

Last year was remarkable at the box office, with moviegoers spending more than $9 billion, up roughly 13% over 2001 grosses. The boom was even bigger in home video, where DVD sales were up 50%, topping $8 billion in sales. So why were more people watching movies when the movies were no better -- or even worse -- than ever?

A look at the year’s highest-grossing films offers a revealing snapshot of moviegoer tastes. As befits a culture beset by threats of war, terrorism and economic insecurity, we were hungry for escapism. The films that dominated the pop mainstream -- “Spider-Man,” “Star Wars: Episode 2 -- Attack of the Clones,” “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and “Men in Black II” -- all offered special-effects fantasies and battles between good and evil involving characters with magical powers. Even “Signs,” the one earthbound drama in the box-office Top 5, was a sci-fi-style fable about a family’s battle against invaders from another planet.

With rare exception, the big hits are the movies that lend themselves to sequelization and windfall DVD profits. But it’s important to remember that many of the year’s biggest duds were also supposed slam-dunk remakes and sequels, such as “I Spy,” “Rollerball,” “Four Feathers,” “Analyze That” and “Star Trek: Nemesis.”

Guessing what moviegoers want is one of the toughest crystal-ball jobs in America. If I were running a studio, I’d put it out of business in no time flat. With that caveat in mind, here’s my 2002 Studio Report Card gauging the performance of the top studios, with two grades: one for box-office performance, one for movie quality. Based on those ratings, here are my rankings, from most to least successful studio.

Sony Pictures

With seven No. 1 opening-weekend movies, Sony broke all sorts of box-office records in 2002. But the real news was that after years of ups and downs, the studio emerged as a place where everybody wanted to do business. The lion’s share of credit goes to studio chief Amy Pascal, who provided firm leadership and refreshing candor; when friends asked about her big loser, “I Spy,” she admitted the movie was a stinker. Sony may go overboard on marketing expenditures, but it got a lot of bang from hits like “Panic Room,” “Mr. Deeds,” “Men in Black II” and “XXX.” Of all the summer smashes, “Spider-Man” got the best reviews, thanks to the studio’s shrewdly putting the film in the hands of producer Laura Ziskin and director Sam Raimi.

Did you know? Ziskin’s husband, Oscar-winning screenplay vet Alvin Sargent, played a key uncredited role in doctoring the “Spider-Man” script.

Box office: A. Quality: B+.

New Line Cinema

How do you knock a studio whose “Lord of the Rings” sequel is doing even better than the original, had a $200-million-plus hit with “Austin Powers in Goldmember” and has an Oscar contender with the Jack Nicholson-starring “About Schmidt”? Still, the studio could be faulted for playing it safe: New Line released only seven other movies, none of them big losers, including the surprise hit “John Q” and the low-budget sequels “Friday After Next” and “Blade 2.” Production chief Toby Emmerich is still an unproven commodity, having yet to persuade industry dealmakers that he’ll back risky projects or make tough decisions without studio founder Bob Shaye’s approval.

Did you know? The studio made an abortive attempt to re-cut “About Schmidt.”

Box office: A-. Quality: B.

Disney

The studio had the year’s second-biggest box-office grosses, fueled by whopping profits from “Signs,” “Lilo and Stitch,” “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Santa Clause 2.” Its unsung hero: marketing maven Oren Aviv, who turned low-budget underdogs “The Rookie” and “Snow Dogs” into stellar performers. However, thanks to meddling from Disney czar Michael Eisner, the studio missed out on the much-sought-after remake of “Peter Pan” and is in danger of losing its invaluable pact with “Toy Story” creators Pixar, a bad sign at a time when the Disney animation brand has lost much of its punch, resulting in a huge write-off on “Treasure Planet.”

Did you know? Needing a prestige movie, the studio nabbed Spike Lee’s “25th Hour,” which promptly got bad reviews almost everywhere.

Box office: B+. Quality: B.

DreamWorks

The studio still has production-chief identity issues and overspends on budgets. (Who else would’ve put up $95 million for “Road to Perdition”?) But even if DreamWorks appears out of the Oscar race for the first time in years, of the seven movies it made, none were big losers. “Catch Me If You Can” is on its way to blockbuster status and “The Ring” was one of the year’s surprise hits, despite being re-cut without director Gore Verbinski’s participation.

Did you know? Verbinski completed “The Time Machine” after original director Simon Wells fell prey to exhaustion.

Box office: B+. Quality: B.

Universal Pictures

The studio had a lackluster year, though it remains the industry’s favorite stop for A-list material, largely because of the leadership of studio chief Stacey Snider and her brainy production and marketing lieutenants. On “8 Mile,” Snider assembled the unlikely team of Eminem and director Curtis Hanson, helping transform the studio’s riskiest project into its biggest profit maker. It also made money with “The Bourne Identity” and “The Scorpion King,” making up for duds like “Blue Crush” and the disastrous “The Truth About Charlie.”

Did you know? Its biggest flop was a movie it never released, “D-Tox,” a $60-million Sly Stallone fiasco.

Box office: C+. Quality: B-.

20th Century Fox

Most of the money from Fox’s biggest hit, “Star Wars: Episode II,” flows directly into George Lucas’ pockets, meaning its top moneymaker, “Ice Age,” was a film the studio tried to unload part of just months before its release. “Minority Report” got glowing reviews, but the studio gave away a huge chunk of profits to Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. The real success here is art-house subsidiary Fox Searchlight, which had a better slugging percentage than Barry Bonds with a slew of low-budget hits, including “One Hour Photo,” “The Banger Sisters,” “The Good Girl” and “Brown Sugar.”

Did you know? The studio passed on “Barbershop.”

Box office: C+. Quality: B-.

Warner Bros.

Never has a studio made more money making more bad movies. Only two of Warners’ 25 releases last year were home runs: “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” and “Scooby-Doo.” Otherwise, the studio aimed low and still missed -- on most of its films. It had the year’s most epic flop, “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” (a $100-million movie that took in $4 million) as well as such losers as “Analyze That,” “Showtime” and “Death to Smoochy.” The studio is armed with strong franchises, and many of its flops were co-financed by outside partners, but it’s hard to be overly excited about a company that dumps savvy production head Lorenzo di Bonaventura and legendary home-video chief Warren Lieberfarb in the same year.

Did you know? Despite the failure of “Collateral Damage,” the studio is still plunking down $50 million for U.S. distribution rights to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines.”

Box office: C+. Quality: D.

MGM/UA

It’s not easy reviving a studio that sees good scripts only after everyone else has turned them down, one reason why the top brass is capping its investment at $20 million in most new films. MGM had a cataclysmic first half, with bombs “Rollerball,” “Hart’s War” and “Windtalkers” but staggered to its feet with the surprise hit “Barbershop” and the Bond war horse “Die Another Day,” which outperformed its youth-oriented rival, “XXX.”

Did you know?: UA’s “Bowling for Columbine” is the highest-grossing non-music documentary.

Box office: C-. Quality: C.

Miramax / Dimension

Harvey Weinstein’s renewed commitment to quality fare was about as successful as his attempts to quit smoking. 2002 was a terrible year for both labels, with Dimension’s failures (“Below” and “Equilibrium”) largely canceling out its “Spy Kids 2” hit, while Miramax’s success with “Frida” was offset by a host of duds (“Tadpole,” “Heaven,” “Waking Up in Reno” and so many others). The studio still has an undeniable nose for Oscar sizzlers, with “Chicago” already off to a great start, but the jury is still out on whether “Gangs of New York” and “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” will find big enough audiences to make significant profits. “Pinocchio” was a fiasco, with its Godzilla-like dubbing scaring away both children and adults.

Did you know? Miramax had a movie with Julia Roberts, “Full Frontal,” that grossed $2.5 million.

Box office: D+. Quality: B-

Paramount

The studio with the worst talent relations in the business. As director Barry Sonnenfeld groused after seeing a project stalled by budgetary hardball: “Sherry Lansing and Jonathan Dolgen only look at the downside of an investment.” The studio’s once reliable hit machine looked shopworn as its go-to franchises faltered, from “Star Trek: Nemesis” to “Abandon,” a woman-in-jeopardy thriller that flopped this fall. Paramount’s only $100-million movie was a tired sequel, “Sum of All Fears,” while its biggest profit maker was the hard-to-brag-about “Jackass: The Movie.” Even its sure-thing Nickelodeon franchises sputtered, with the only touch of class coming from the Oscar contender “The Hours.”

Did you know? Mel Gibson was so unhappy about the dismal performance of “We Were Soldiers” last spring that he left his studio deal.

Box office: C-. Quality: C-

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“The Big Picture” runs every Tuesday in Calendar. If you have comments, ideas or criticism, e-mail them to patrick.goldstein@latimes.com.