`GIANT' DISAPPOINTMENT; WARNER BROS. BLEW CHANCE TO MARKET `TERRIFIC' FILM WHILE IRON WAS STILL HOT.

Byline: Dave McNary Staff Writer

What in the world went wrong?

``Iron Giant'' is on its way to the scrap heap of Hollywood. It will be the best movie your kid never sees.

Despite the most superlative reviews of any film this year, the animated tale of a boy's friendship with a giant robot from outer space opened with a massive thud last weekend. It ended Sunday with $5.7 million in gross receipts and in ninth place - one-fifth of the business generated by ``Sixth Sense,'' the weekend's leader.

That's a flat-out disaster for a project that cost Warner Bros. an estimated $50 million to produce and an additional $30 million for marketing. It's embarrassing for the studio because ``Iron Giant'' opened not only with blue-chip critical support but also with customers mobbing multiplexes, pushing overall summer grosses up 20 percent over last year's record-setting pace.

``I think a couple of things happened to `Iron Giant,' '' said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations Co. ``First, kids don't read reviews, and they were the target audience. Second, it was very crowded over the weekend with six films doing over $10 million.''

Warner Bros. for its part is hoping that word of mouth will kick in. ``We were a little disappointed by the opening, with such great reviews and exit polling,'' said distribution chief Dan Fellman. ``This is a terrific movie for parents who often say, There's nothing to take the kids to.''

In the meantime, industry trackers are left wondering what Warner Bros. - already shaken to its foundations three weeks ago with the surprise resignations of co-chairmen Bob Daly and Terry Semel - should have done differently.

It's not as if there's not a market for animated films. ``Tarzan'' opened two months ago and is nearing the end of a run that should go past $170 million domestically, making it the fifth animated film in a year to top $100 million following ``Mulan,'' ``A Bug's Life,'' ``Rugrats'' and ``Prince of Egypt.''

It's not as if people don't agree with critics, who were especially impressed by how the boy's life changes when a metal-eating giant arrives in a small Maine town in 1957. ``The exit polls show 96 and 97 percent of the people would recommend `Iron Giant,' '' said Robert Bucksbaum, president of the Reel Source forecasting service. ``If you can get a teen-ager to see it, they're going to love it, but you're going to have to drag them in.''

And it's not as if Warner Bros. didn't try to sell the movie, even going so far as to schedule sneak previews on the Sunday before it opened. But analysts say ``Iron Giant'' was doomed by two factors - bad timing and a severe miscalculation of how to attract an audience.

The timing goes back to ``Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace.'' When 20th Century Fox decided to stake out the May 19 opening, rival studios except for Universal cleared out of the way. Universal executives figured there would be a strong market for other movies and were proved correct with ``The Mummy'' and ``Notting Hill.''

Everyone else tried to cram summer-type movies into July and August, including ``The Blair Witch Project'' from little-known Artisan Entertainment. ``Blair Witch'' generated not only sensational grosses when it opened in mid-July; it also attracted virtually all of the media attention in the days and weeks before ``Iron Giant'' opened Aug. 6.

It's hard to imagine Warner picking a worse time to open the film. Not only was it facing four other new movies (``Sixth Sense,'' ``The Thomas Crown Affair,'' ``Mystery Men'' and ``Dick''); it also was going up against the second weekends of ``Runaway Bride'' and ``Deep Blue Sea'' and the expanded run of ``Blair Witch.'' Box office for the weekend was the second-highest ever at $153.5 million; ``Iron Giant'' captured a meager 3.7 percent.

``A lot of the late-summer films would have done better in May or June,'' Bucksbaum said. ``The exhibitors, particularly those who couldn't get `Star Wars,' were starving for product back then.''

The second reason - failing to find the audience - is more complicated, but it stems from the simple fact that very few moviegoers wanted to see ``Iron Giant.'' Its weekend per-theater average was only $2,631, an average of $145 or perhaps 30 tickets per showing. That means theater owners will want to ditch ``Iron Giant'' as soon as possible.

``In my household, I'm the only one who wants to see `Iron Giant,' '' said Rick Manly, an Altadena resident and frequent moviegoer. ``My 13-year-old son wants to see `Deep Blue Sea' again and my 10-year-old daughter would love to go to `Runaway Bride.' They have no interest in `Iron Giant.' ''

Bucksbaum believes Warner missed out by not targeting teen-agers and adults. ``You can't target kids anymore with your marketing, because they don't want to see it unless older kids think it's cool,'' he said. ``Kids want to see adult films like `Runaway Bride' and `The Haunting.' ''

As a result, Bucksbaum asserts, it was crucial for Warner to do something other than using a traditional marketing campaign. ``With the Disney brand so strong for animated movies, you really have to do something different,'' he added. ``It's really tough unless you've got computer-generated images. You talk to people in the street about seeing this movie and it's just `No way.' ''

Internet movie guru Harry Knowles, operator of the ain't-it-cool-news site, believes ``Iron Giant'' needed special treatment. ``The problem with Warner's marketing of the film is it treats the movie as though it was a Saturday morning TV cartoon,'' he wrote. ``They played the movie as being silly, as being a goofy movie. And that was wrong.''

Knowles, who contends ``Iron Giant'' deserves a Best Picture Academy Award nomination, believes the studio should have submitted ``Iron Giant'' to the Cannes Film Festival and used the buzz from the international press to generate interest.

He said Warner Bros. also should have shown sneak previews during the Fourth of July weekend with its ``Wild Wild West'' and released the movie July 16 against ``Eyes Wide Shut,'' which ended up performing almost as poorly as ``Iron Giant.''

But now it's too late, unless there's a stunning shift at the box office. ``Iron Giant'' will wind up grossing about $20 million domestically and join that odd category of critical favorites that never caught on with the public this year such as Disney's ``Rushmore,'' Paramount's ``Election'' and Sony's ``Dick.''

``These days, it's all about concept, hype and buzz and getting people into the theater,'' Bucksbaum said. ``It's what you do before the opening weekend. They may have to go back to the days of giving away free cups and dishes to get people to come.''

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PHOTO (Color) no caption (``Iron Giant'')