Hollywood budgets set new record

In the annual industry address given at the National Association of Theater Owners convention, Motion Picture Association of America President Jack Valenti also said marketing costs for studio films rose to $22.2 million.

The $53.4 million average production budget, which includes studio overhead, reflects an increase of 34 percent from 1996, Valenti said. Marketing costs increased 12.2 percent.

The average movie cost was affected by "Titanic," which cost $200 million or more to produce, and "Batman & Robin," whose budget reportedly exceeded $180 million. But Valenti said, "Titanic" only affected the average figure by a couple of million dollars.

Courtesy of Warner Bros. With a $180 mil budget, "Batman and Robin" helped 1997 set a budget record.

Valenti said that while "Titanic" represented the most expensive movie ever made, it "is soon about to morph into the mightiest revenue-producing film of all time."

''Titanic'' has grossed $449.2 million domestically in 12 weeks.

But Valenti warned that the surging costs cannot continue unchecked. "It is a terrible confluence of hope and also terror which confront every studio, every producer, every production company."

In other industry news, movie theater admissions totaled 1.4 billion, the most in nearly four decades. Domestic box-office returns were $6.4 billion, the largest gross ever.

"In spite of VCRs, laser discs, CD-ROMs, cable and TV stations, sporting events, satellite home delivery, optic fiber ... and the World Wide Web, in spite of all of these intrusions, more Americans visited your theaters in 1997 than any time since 1959," Valenti told the theater owners.

Studio returns were boosted by overseas income. Latin American box-office numbers surged 13 percent, and admissions in Europe were up 6 percent.

Valenti said American returns benefited from frequent moviegoers, who attend a theater at least monthly. These people, Valenti said, make up 28 percent of the population but 81 percent of total admissions.

Breaking the audience down by ethnic groups, the MPAA study showed that whites account for 66 percent of domestic admissions. Hispanics represent 15 percent of tickets sold, and blacks 13 percent.

03-13-98