`GODZILLA' TAKING BIG BITE; SONY SEEKS MONSTER PRICE FOR SCREENINGS.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

``Godzilla'' is putting the squeeze on the nation's theater owners.

Sony Pictures executives have announced they will seek as much as 80 percent of box office receipts for ``Godzilla'' during the opening week - well above the usual payout studios receive.

The studio is betting moviegoer appetite for ``Godzilla,'' opening May 20, is so strong that exhibitors will agree to a smaller payout in exchange for the guarantee of having the must-see movie of the early summer.

Richard Fay, head of AMC Film Marketing, said Tuesday he was surprised by the timing of Sony's move. ``I think it's premature,'' he said. ``The normal course is to see the movie in its entirety and then negotiate terms. I don't see any reason to chuck the way we've done business for the last 25 years.''

Fay said the 80 percent rate could have been justified for a film like ``Titanic,'' which has topped $516 million for Paramount after 15 weeks in U.S. theaters, but noted those deals were negotiated after the film opened. Paramount, Disney, Warner Bros. and MGM negotiate after their movies debut while Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal and DreamWorks SKG make deals before the opening.

``Godzilla,'' produced by ``Independence Day'' team Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, will come into the market amid the culmination of a massive publicity campaign as the summer's most anticipated movie. Analysts believe the tale of the 200-foot lizard terrorizing New York could match the $306 million taken in two years ago by ``Independence Day,'' the eighth-largest domestic gross ever.

Exhibitors usually agree to pay studios 70 percent of box office during the first week or 90 percent minus overhead costs, meaning that the studio's cut rarely reaches 80 percent. The deals also provide that the studio portion declines the longer the film stays at a theater, with exhibitors keeping the majority of ticket sales after four or five weeks.

Sony's move comes amid an explosion in theater construction, with owners opting for lavish 20-plus-screen ``megaplexes'' that can schedule a hit film at as many as half a dozen auditoriums with start times every 20 or 30 minutes. That means increased leverage for studios since exhibitors need a continued flow of new films to keep attendance high.