Hollywood banks on banner year at box office

updated 2:24 p.m. ET March 15, 2007

LAS VEGAS - Soothsayers were big in the ancient Greek era depicted in the blockbuster “300,” and Hollywood hopes that flick portends one of the biggest years in modern times for the movie business.

Unlike a year ago, when the industry was recovering from a dismal 2005, the annual ShoWest convention of theater owners opened with high spirits Tuesday, Hollywood riding a wave of recent hits and looking ahead to a summer with an unprecedented lineup of potential box-office smashes.

“I’ve been in the business 50 years. I think it looks like the best product year I can ever remember since the days of ‘Titanic,’ ” said Marvin Troutman, president of Cinema Centers Inc., which has 66 theater screens in central Pennsylvania.

Troutman spoke while strolling past a line of movie posters promoting such summer blockbusters in waiting as “Shrek the Third,” “Spider-Man 3” and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”

At ShoWest last year, theater owners groused that Hollywood had let them down in 2005 with a string of boring movies. The industry rebounded with a solid though unremarkable year in 2006.

This time, cinema operators are buzzing with the early success of last weekend’s “300,” which opened with a record March debut of $70.9 million.

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Going into the weekend, 2007’s movie admissions had been lagging 1 percent behind last year’s because of a sleepy January and February at cinemas. Then the comic-book adaptation “Ghost Rider” and the road comedy “Wild Hogs” heated up the box office, a prelude to the huge opening of “300,” the success of which helped put admissions nearly 2 percent ahead of 2006’s in a single weekend.

More important, say Hollywood executives, the industry is offering a range of films that capture all audiences, young and old, not just the teen moviegoers whom studios target with many of their summer popcorn flicks.

“Last weekend, I went to the movies, and it was sold out. I was trying to see ‘The Last King of Scotland.’ Then I tried to see ‘Amazing Grace.’ Sold out,” said Dan Glickman, who heads the Motion Picture Association of America, Hollywood’s key trade group. “Most people would have been upset. I was thrilled.”

As ShoWest opened, theater owners were shown previews of two major Disney summer releases, the trailer for “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” and a 12-minute clip of “Ratatouille,” the latest cartoon comedy from Pixar Animation.

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