COMEDY SPRINGS ETERNAL: CAN HOLLYWOOD LAUGH ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK? (NYT)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

The surfeit of dour films that dominated fall and winter is set to be replaced by a spring-summer comedy glut, says today�s New York Times. Indeed, theaters are about to be stuffed with live-action laffers.

Roughly half the major-studio releases from the valuable April through early July period are set to star some of the biggest box-office draws, including Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Will Smith, Eddie Murphy, Steve Carell and Mike Myers.

Hollywood�s hoped-for laugh riot stands in stark contrast to the same period last year which was dominated by fantasy sequels like �Spider-Man 3,� �Pirates of the Caribbean: At World�s End� and �Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,� notes the Times.

But the comic alignment probably owes more to the film industry�s internal dynamics than to any pulse moving through the nation at large. Whatever the source, it will test the audience appetite for a whole lot of what is usually a good thing, posits the paper.

Beginning in early April, Universal has scheduled three comedies: �Leatherheads,� directed by and starring George Clooney, followed by �Forgetting Sarah Marshall,� produced by Judd Apatow and then �Baby Mama,� starring �Saturday Night Live� vets Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and which will open the Tribeca Film Festival.

The next month Sony will release four comedies in a row, beginning with �Made of Honor,� starring Patrick Dempsey then Sandler�s �You Don�t Mess With the Zohan,� �Hancock,� starring Smith and �Step Brothers� with Ferrell and John C. Reilly.

But the main event, says the Times, will occur on June 20. If nobody blinks Paramount Pictures, Mr. Myers and �The Love Guru� will open that Friday against Warner Brothers, Steve Carell and the new movie version of �Get Smart� in a face-off of the kind that big companies with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake generally like to avoid.

Rob Moore, Paramount�s vice chairman, said there were enough laughs to go around. �You have so much capacity in the summer, and there are only two movies opening that weekend,� he told the NYT.

Few are declaring a cultural trend. �Can you make an argument that the world is in such a depressed place that we�re going to comedies?� Casey Silver, a producer of �Leatherheads,� told the Times. �Far be it from me to say.�

Still, history has its lessons. Beset by a writers� strike and a weakening economy, Hollywood saw four comedies � �Who Framed Roger Rabbit,� �Coming to America,� �Big,� and �Crocodile Dundee II� � sweep the box office in the summer of 1988. In the last three presidential campaign years, however, the biggest comedy hit came after the election: �Meet the Fockers� in 2004, �How the Grinch Stole Christmas� in 2000 and �Jerry Maguire� in 1996.

Lately studios have made the most money from comedies that stay in theaters for many weeks. �A good comedy has legs,� Shawn Levy, executive producer of �What Happens in Vegas,� and director of �Night at the Museum,� told the NYT.

This year comedy has come to the fore because of several unrelated factors. Sequels thinned out for a while � �The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian� and �Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull� are the only two big fantasy follow-ups in the vicinity of Memorial Day.

Meanwhile, Judd Apatow, on a hot streak with hits like �Knocked Up� and �Superbad,� took a misstep in December with his musical biopic spoof, �Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.� Last weekend one of his occasional associates, Ferrell, underperformed expectations when �Semi-Pro,� brought in a little more than $15 million.

The poor results sent a shiver through an industry that likes comedies because they are generally less expensive than animated films or effects-driven spectacles. But though more cost-effective, comedies still need a healthy turnout domestically because most do not translate abroad.

Still, Valerie Van Galder, marketing president of Sony�s Columbia-TriStar Motion Picture Group, said she was confident that the audience remained hungry for laughs. �It�s a communal experience,� she told the Times of the genre�s enduring appeal.

And Thomas Pollock, a partner in the Montecito Picture Company, pointed out that heavily tested, carefully tuned comedies were on the whole wonderfully predictable.

�Multiply the number of big laughs in the movie times $10 million, and you get the ultimate domestic box office,� Pollock said. �Ten big laughs, $100 million.�

COMEDY SPRINGS ETERNAL: CAN HOLLYWOOD LAUGH ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK? (NYT)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

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