Hollywood banks on banner year at box office

Other major summer tales include Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker’s “Rush Hour 3,” the sci-fi adventure “Transformers,” George Clooney’s latest heist romp “Ocean’s Thirteen,” Adam Sandler’s comedy “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry,” the superhero sequel “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” Steve Carell’s “Bruce Almighty” follow-up “Evan Almighty,” the animated penguin story “Surf’s Up,” Matt Damon’s new spy caper “The Bourne Ultimatum,” and “The Simpsons Movie,” a big-screen adventure for TV’s favorite cartoon family.

Might the overload of movies cut into one another’s business?

“Not if they’re good movies,” said Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of the “Pirates” trilogy, whose second chapter was last year’s biggest hit. “When you have a down year and people didn’t come, it’s not because they don’t like movies. It’s because the movies we put out there didn’t engage them. Not that they were bad movies. It’s just audiences didn’t respond. Hopefully, this summer we can prove them all wrong.”

In 2006, domestic revenues were just under $9.5 billion, with about 1.45 billion tickets sold. That was up solidly from 2005, when admissions plunged and some critics predicted doom for movie houses because of home-theater systems and other newer entertainment options.

Admissions in 2006 were on a par with the industry average over the past decade, though far below Hollywood’s golden age of the 1930s and ’40s, when estimates put ticket sales as high as 4 billion a year before TV began eroding movie audiences.

Hollywood’s revenue record of $9.53 billion came in 2004, while the best year in modern times for admissions came in 2002, with 1.6 billion tickets sold.

With such a heavy-hitting 2007 lineup, some think those modern revenue and admissions records could fall this year.

“You never know until people start buying tickets for the big pictures, but we’ve never seen a slate like this before,” said John Fithian, who heads the National Association of Theatre Owners. “So we have guarded confidence that it’s going to be a huge year. We’ll see when they come to the theaters.”

Theater owners offered rousing applause after viewing the footage of “Ratatouille,” the story of a gourmand rodent who teams with a lowly human janitor to cook grand dishes at a fancy French restaurant.

“Ratatouille” director Brad Bird said he has gotten over fears that his film could get lost in the onslaught of sequels with familiar characters and story lines.

“We feel very confident as a story that we’ll be able to stand with anybody. And we think you can’t live on sequels alone, man. You’ve got to get some fiber in your diet,” said Bird, who also directed “The Incredibles.” “We’re thinking that the idea of doing original films is going to catch on, because after all, where do sequels come from?”

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