Boxoffice-July.1999

Street securities analysts that "Godzilla"
was a flop...
So how much money did "Godzilla"
make? By summer's end, its domestic
gross had plateaued at $135 million. By
early fall, however, the movie was eliciting
a warm reception overseas, opening to
near-record numbers in Spain and even
surpassing the numbers for "Men in
Black" in Sweden. While it opened
strongly in Japan, a curious counterreaction
occurred, with audiences apparently
resenting the fact that a Japanese franchise
had been so boldly Americanized.
Before long, "Saving Private Ryan" and
"Deep Impact" had eclipsed it.
Though Sony executives were being
evasive, their estimates for overseas business
approached $250 million, bringing
the total world gross to roughly $385 million.
Given the $200 million cost of producing
and launching the movie in the
U.S., Sony would clearly elicit a profit
from its remake, albeit an unspectacular
one and nowhere the $80 million that
Disney claimed it had earned on
"Armageddon."
Sony's summer did not begin and end
with "Godzilla," of course. Despite all its
preproduction tribulations, "The Mask
of Zorro" also turned out to be a solid
success for Sony's TriStar unit. It grossed
$90 million in the U.S. and a like number
abroad. Given the healthy share designated
for Spielberg's company, however,
"Zorro" hardly seemed destined to be a
major profit center for Sony.
The plan at Sony was to surround its
tentpoles with an array of inexpensive
movies, most of them aimed at that beckoning
youth audience. But while this plan
worked for Fox, it didn't for Sony. A succession
of films like "Can't Hardly Wait"
and "My Giant" simply didn't perform,
though "Madeline" was a modest success.
As a result, the company's vaunted
claim on market share leadership, which
Galley ardently hoped to retain, was surrendered
ignominiously. Disney and Fox
finished in a virtual tie, claiming 20.9 percent
and 20.3 percent of the summer
market, respectively, while Sony languished
in fifth place with a mere 11.8
percent, down 48 percent from 1997...
If Sony presented a rather dour face to
the community, the atmosphere at
Warner Bros, was hardly more robust.
That studio had managed to finish ahead
of Sony with a 12.3 percent market share,
but that was still six percent below 1997,
which also had been a weak year-discouraging
results for a company that had
accustomed itself to being either number
one or two. Though "Lethal Weapon IV"
was principally responsible for its market
share position, the project still carried an
aura of corporate desperation—a movie
they were compelled to make, not one
they had wanted to make...
As the biggest stockholder in Time
Warner, the mercurial "Mouth of the
South" [Ted Turner] was known to be
impatient with the [Bob] Daly-[Terry]
Semel team. Though mainly identified
with cable television, Turner, five years
earlier, had exhibited a sudden interest in
the movie business. He had paid well over
half a billion dollars to acquire two sharp
independents, Castle Rock and New
Line, and had then established yet another
company. Turner Pictures,
ostensibly
to produce quality films...
But Turner's film forays had uniformly
turned sour. Shortly after their acquisition,
both Casfle Rock and New Line
went into severe slumps, their once exemplary
records suddenly tarnished by a
series of losers. Castle Rock had looked
as if it couldn't miss, making films like
"When Harry Met Sally," but now it was
mired in projects like "Mississippi
Burning" and "North." New Line's output
ranged from genre hits like the
"Nightmare on Elm Street" series to daring
films like "Seven" and "The Mask."
Suddenly, under Turner ownership, it was
making "The Island of Dr. Moreau,"
"Last Man Standing," and "The Long
Kiss Goodnight."
After Turner's empire was gobbled up
by Time Warner, his movie agenda shifted
once again. Turner Pictures was
abruptly folded, Castle Rock continued
to flounder, cofinanced now by Warner
Bros, and Polygram, while New Line
managed not only to retain substantial
autonomy but also to resume its winning
streak. Despite Turner's obvious disdain
for the policies of the Daly-Semel regime,
a tacit hands-off treaty was negotiated by
Gerald Levin, chairman of Time Warner,
to keep the corporate peace. And though
rumors persisted that Turner was bridling
under this agreement, he nonetheless was
abiding by it.
Meanwhile Daly and Semel, pinched
by new budgetary constraints, were busily
looking for cofinanciers for their
movies. Where in the past the studio had
moved on its own, co-venturing a few
films each year only with New Regency,
which had now moved to Fox, a whole
new array of financing entities suddenly
were opening offices on the lot. And, as
at Paramount and Universal, the drill for
a producer was not only to assemble the
package but also the funding...
By the end of the summer '98, both
men were saying all the right things. They
continued to talk about modestly budgeted
movies, pledging never again to start a
movie until the script was right. The audience
was changing, they said, and so
must the studio.
Many agents and producers doing
business day to day with the studio, however,
dismissed this as mere spin. "All
they really talk about is 'Wild Wild West,'
which takes them right back into the $100
million league," said one producer with
long-term ties to the regime. "The studio's
thinking will never change. But their
luck better change..."
There was no such ambivalence at Fox.
SUMMERTIMl
TOMES
BOXOFFICE's Summer Reading Li
"Jackie Chan" by Wade Major
(Friedman/Fairfax Publishers,
96 pgs., $12.98)
BOXOFFICE's
own Wade
Major has published
a colorful
new pictorial
biography detailing
the life of
international
film star Jackie
Chan. Major,
whose special
interests lie in
Asian cinema, provides readers
reverent account of the life of Hon
Kong's most famous living martial artisi
The book poses the question "Just whaj
is it that makes Jackie so special?" aiK
proceeds to answer this inquiry throug!
chapters that document the differen
stages of Chan's life and career. Full
page color and black-and-white shot
depicting some of the actor's mos
famous on-screen moments help to illus
trate Chan's climb to the top.
"Jackie Chan," filled with portrait:'
and action shots, as well as Major':
expert observations of the actor and hi:
artistic development, make this book i
nice inclusion to any Kung Fu movit
lover's library.
"A Cut Above: 50 Film Directors
Talk About Their Craft" by Michael
Singer (Lone Eagle Publishing Co.,
350 pgs., $19.95)
In "A Cut Above." Michael Singer
(author of the annually pubHshed industry
reference manual "Film Directors: A
Complete Guide") has assembled a collection
of his conversations with some of
Hollywood's best-known film helmers on
the art of directing. From legendary toetapper
Gene Kelly, whose motion picture
credits include "director" along with
"choreographer" and "star," to conspiracy
theorist extraordinaire Oliver Stone.
Singer's interviews provide a window
into the world of filmmaking through
the eyes of the men and women whose
visions drive the bigscreen products
watched by worldwide audiences. Each
of the 50 interviews, accompanied by
mini-profiles and filmographies. is an
exploration of the techniques and thematic
flourishes characteristic of the
individual filmmaker.
Included among the revelations captured
by Singer are Oliver Stone describing
his driving passion behind "JFK": "1
obviously let a lot of my personal emotions
get into JFK. Because I
really fell
the truth was faked. He'd been killed
28 BOXOFFICE