• New Line's Biggest Gamble Ever Is Paying Off -- And How.
• Boxoffice crosses $8 billion for 2001
• Emilia Fox is psyched for Europe
• Dino De Laurentiis Is Looking For A Big-Name Actress

New Line's Biggest Gamble Ever Is Paying Off -- And How.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' has returned a staggering $156 million after 12 days in 22 territories -- a whisker more than the picture's domestic total of $154.7 million. "So we're up and racing now,'' said Rolf Mittweg, the studio's worldwide distribution and marketing chief.

The worldwide receipts of $310.7 million for the first picture in the "Rings'' trilogy exceed New Line's hopes for $300 million in two weeks.

Despite the picture's three-hour running time and a worldwide release pattern designed to favor longevity over instant returns, the picture is racking up box office records.

The picture's Oz bow on Dec. 26, in a less competitive Christmas market than previous years, returned a record $2.09 million. It smashed the previous opening bow record of $1.3 million for "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace,'' held since 1999. The Oz Oz total is $7.2 million after one week.

Records have fallen in New Zealand -- where Kiwi helmer Peter Jackson's trilogy was made -- as well as South Africa, Denmark and Sweden.

"We will know of more (territories) when the holidays are over because distributors can get to their records,'' said Mittweg.

In New Zealand receipts total $2.1 million after 11 days; the Denmark total is $3.8 million after 12 days, South Africa $825,000 after 12 days, and Sweden $5.4 million from 12 days.

From 12 days in Blighty, the Hobbits garnered $35 million, and in Germany, where "Rings'' and "Harry Potter'' have almost exclusive control of the market, the picture has delivered $33.2 million. The Gaul haul is $22 million, Spain $14 million and Austria $3.8 million.

The picture opened in Mexico Dec. 21 to deliver $7.3 million, while Argentina's bow was put on ice due to the political unrest. Mittweg expects to premiere the picture there "sometime in the first quarter.'' "Rings'' opened elsewhere in South America Jan. 1 and will hit Italy in mid-January and Japan in February.

Boxoffice crosses $8 billion for 2001

For the first time, single-year theatrical film boxoffice in the United States crossed the $8 billion mark, reaching a total of $8.38 billion in 2001, according to estimates by HR.

The new high at the national boxoffice improved a solid 9% on the previous record of $7.66 billion, set in 2000, and continued the longest expansion in movie business history as revenue increased for an unprecedented 10th straight year.

As importantly, ticket sales posted equally impressive numbers as admissions registered their largest number in 42 years.

While the increase at the boxoffice was expected, the question was whether admissions would keep pace with or surpass the 1.48 billion racked up in 1998, which had stood as the largest number of admissions since 1959. Estimated admissions racked up a hefty 1.49 billion ticket units in 2001, a respectable increase of nearly 5% on the previous year's 1.42 billion and up slightly but statistically tied with 1998's total, a difference of less than 1%.

The boxoffice and admissions numbers were helped by an exceptionally strong fourth quarter, which rebounded from an understandably depressed September as patrons drove grosses to record highs in November.

The advances are all the more impressive in that they were made with fewer theaters and screens in operation. With the restructuring of the exhibition business after several major chains filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, there are about 1,150 fewer screens and 655 fewer theaters in operation than there were a year ago.

Despite this, the boxoffice expansion seems to be continuing unabated. Since 1970, boxoffice cycles have tended to follow a pattern of three to four years of expansion, followed by 12-18 months of decline.

The longest expansion after World War II was from 1963-70, when boxoffice increased every year. But admissions decreased during four of the eight years, largely because ticket prices nearly doubled during that time. But during the present 10-year expansion, the average ticket price has increased a relatively mild 36%, admissions have racked up the best numbers in more than four decades, and boxoffice has soared 75%.

In a departure from the previous three years, when two distributors grossed more than $1 billion each at the boxoffice, only Warner Bros. reached that mark in 2001. The studio arrived at that milestone for the second time in company history with significant help from the year's top-grossing film, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," which took in $291.4 million by year's end.

"Potter" started breaking records from Day 1, generating the largest single-day gross in boxoffice history with $32.3 million on its opening Friday and surpassing that mark on Saturday with $33.5 million. Before "Potter," the best single-day gross was $28.5 million, generated on the opening Wednesday of Fox's "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace."

The opening three-day frame for "Potter" totaled a staggering $90.3 million. The wizard's tale claimed the record for biggest opening weekend in boxoffice history by edging the $90.2 million that Universal's "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" grossed during the four-day Memorial Day holiday frame in 1997.

"Potter" reached the $100 million mark after five days in release -- faster than any other film in history, beating "Phantom" by a day. The fantasy adventure also raised the bar for all-time widest opening as the film went out in 3,672 theaters and landed on more than 8,200 screens.

Other films that aided in carrying Warner Bros. to the $1 billion club again were "Ocean's Eleven" ($136.7 million), "Cats & Dogs" ($93.4 million) and "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" ($78.6 million). The first time Warners crossed the $1 billion mark was in 1999 when the distributor had "The Matrix," "The Green Mile" and "Wild, Wild West" in theaters.

Aside from "Potter," 2001 boasted some of the biggest opening weekends in boxoffice history. Fifteen films enjoyed an opening frame of $40 million or more, compared with only eight films in 2000. An unprecedented seven of those opened with more than $60 million each: Universal's "The Mummy Returns" ($68.1 million), Buena Vista's "Pearl Harbor" ($75.2 million), Fox's "Planet of the Apes" ($68.5 million), New Line's "Rush Hour 2" ($67.4 million), Buena Vista's "Monsters, Inc." ($62.6 million), "Potter" and New Line's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" ($66.1 million).

Last year's big opening-weekend grosses provided a stark contrast to 2000, when only one film opened with more than $60 million -- Paramount's "Mission: Impossible 2," which grossed $70.8 million during the four-day Memorial Day frame.

The year 2001 also will be remembered as the first time six releases grossed more than $200 million each: "Potter" ($291.4 million), DreamWorks' "Shrek" ($267.8 million), "Monsters" ($239.5 million), "Rush 2" ($226.1 million), "Mummy" ($202 million) and "Rings" ($175.3 million to date), which should surpass that level soon.

The runner-up year for films topping $200 million is 1999, when four releases exceeded that milestone in domestic boxoffice: "Phantom," Buena Vista's "The Sixth Sense" and "Toy Story 2" and New Line's "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me."

Altogether, 17 films grossed more than $100 million each in 2001, compared with a record 19 in 2000.

The $100 million-plus club again was dominated by Universal, which placed four films in that choice assemblage, as it did in 1999. Buena Vista was runner-up with three films, followed by Warner Bros., Fox and New Line with two apiece and DreamWorks, MGM, Paramount and Dimension with one each. As usual, a majority of the $100 million-plus grossing films were released during the summer season, with a few each coming during the year-end, fall and spring seasons.

The just-ended year also saw a record 13 weeks (Friday-Thursday) during which national boxoffice exceeded $200 million, topping the previous record of 10 set in 2000. In another defining moment, Christmas week racked up a staggering $298.1 million in gross ticket sales, while New Year's week pulled in an estimated 291.4 million, marking the two biggest seven-day frames in boxoffice history.

Season by season, national boxoffice turned in fairly solid performances in 2001. The winter, led by MGM's "Hannibal," set records in boxoffice and admissions, posting double-digit increases from the previous year. Led by "Mummy," spring turned in the second-best boxoffice total on record but only the fourth-highest ticket-unit tally.

The summer season topped the $3 billion mark for the first time, and admissions fell only 2% shy of the season record. "Shrek" was the summer's highest-grossing film. Another CG-animated film dominated the fall as "Monsters" proved the top title of the season. Autumn's boxoffice reached new heights, but ticket units could muster only a fourth-best showing.

The extraordinary boxoffice grosses registered during the year-end season were given an extra kick by Christmas Day and New Year's Day each falling on a Tuesday, making for consecutive five-day weekends. The last time the two holidays fell on Tuesday was in 1990.

Boxoffice tallies for individual films are combined U.S.-Canadian grosses, and numbers for films still in release are estimates through Jan. 1. The boxoffice year does not follow the calendar year but continues until New Year's boxoffice activity winds down.

The MPAA will disclose final 2001 national boxoffice and admissions numbers at the ShoWest convention in March, along with the year's average ticket price as determined by the National Association of Theatre Owners.

Emilia Fox is psyched for Europe

Emilia Fox, daughter of veteran British actor Edward Fox, plays the title character in "My Name Is Sabina Spielrein,'' an Italian period drama about the woman linked to the two founding fathers of modern psychoanalysis.

The provisionally titled English-language feature is one of the key Italian productions aimed at the wider European market. Writer/director Robert Faenza wrapped the $6 million shoot in Turin last month. It is due for Italian release next fall.

Spielrein, a Russian Jew diagnosed with schizophrenia in her late teens, became the patient and, later, lover of Carl Gustav Jung. After being cured and completing her studies, she developed avant-garde child psychiatry methods before being killed by occupying German troops in her native Rostov in 1942.

Little was known about the woman until 1977, when correspondence written by Jung, Spielrein and Sigmund Freud was discovered in Switzerland. Since then, she has been the subject of essays, theater pieces, novels and various film projects. Faenza's picture will be the first to reach the screen.

Fox, 27, also stars in Roman Polanski's upcoming "The Pianist.'' Iain Glen (''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'') stars as Jung, with Craig Ferguson (''Saving Grace'') and Caroline Ducey (''Romance'') as two present-day scholars researching the woman's life.

Dino De Laurentiis Is Looking For A Big-Name Actress

The man behind two of the Hannibal Lecter films is to turn Ken Follett's latest novel into a movie. Dino De Laurentiis is looking for a big-name actress to star as Flick Clariet in Jackdaws. She is an English spy who leads an all-female band of British agents, code-named Jackdaws.

Their mission is to infiltrate and destroy a French chateau housing the German telephone system.

Follett based the novel on a true story. De Laurentiis was the producer of Hannibal, and is currently working on its prequel, Red Dragon. Jackdaws will be made by Universal Pictures

Book Description (Buy This Book) D-Day is approaching. They don't know where or when, but the Germans know it'll be soon, and for Felicity "Flick" Clariet, the stakes have never been higher.

A senior agent in the ranks of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) responsible for sabotage, Flick has survived to become oe of Britain's most effective operatives in Northern France. She knows that the Germans' ability to thwart the Allied attack depends upon their lines of communications, and in the days before the invasion no target is of greater strategic importance than the largest telephone exchange in Europe.

But when Flick and her Resistance-leader husband try a direct, head-on assault that goes horribly wrong, her world turns upside down. Her group destroyed, her husband missing, her superiors unsure of her, her own confidence badly shaken, she has one last chance at the target, but the challenge, once daunting, is now near-impossible. The new plan requires an all-woman team, none of them professionals, to be assembled and trained within days. Code-named the Jackdaws, they will attempt to infiltrate the exchange under the noses of the Germans-but the Germans are waiting for them now and have plans of their own. There are secrets Flick does not know-secrets within the German ranks, secrets among her hastily recruited team, secrets among those she trusts the most. And as the hours tick down to the point of no return, most daunting of all, there are secrets within herself....

Filled with the powerful storytelling, unforgettable characters, and authentic detail that have become his hallmarks, Jackdaws is Ken Follett writing at the height of his powers.