'PEARL HARBOR' STRAFED MOVIE SLOWLY SINKING AT U.S. BOX OFFICE.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Staff Writer

The biggest movie of the summer isn't looking so big after all.

``Pearl Harbor,'' so hyped that some press reports deemed it a megablockbuster even before its release, took another hit at the box office over the weekend, with sales falling 50 percent for the second consecutive week.

In its first three weeks, ``Pearl Harbor'' has earned $144 million domestically for Burbank-based The Walt Disney Co., which spent an estimated $135 million on the World War II epic.

``It was expected to be this film that would just dominate the box office,'' said Paul Dergarabedian of Exhibitor Relations Co. in Los Angeles. ``It would be almost impossible to generate the kinds of numbers a lot of people were throwing out.''

The movie will continue to sink at the U.S. box office, albeit at a slower rate than before, said Dan Marks of ACNielsen EDI, the box office tracking firm in Los Angeles. Some estimate the domestic box office may reach the $200 million mark.

The film could earn an additional $300 million from video release and overseas showings. Japanese moviegoers are likely to help, said entertainment analyst David Miller of Sutro & Co. in Los Angeles.

Early indications are that the movie may play well in Japan, earning the equivalent of $40 million or more, he said. ``Pearl Harbor'' is being marketed more as a romantic story than a war epic in Japan, where it will open July 14 with some scenes and dialogue changed to avoid offending the Japanese.

``There's a large percentage of teens and folks in their early 20s and 30s who are very curious to see how Japan is portrayed,'' Miller said. ``Action films also do well there.''

Domestically, mostly bad reviews and the three-hour run time have taken their toll on the movie, as have the continued popularity of DreamWorks' animated ``Shrek'' and a solid debut by Warner Bros.' ``Swordfish,'' which topped the weekend box office with an opening take of $18.1 million.

``Pearl Harbor'' faces added competition this weekend from the opening of Paramount's ``Tomb Raider'' and another Disney release, ``Atlantis: The Lost Empire.''

Even without a megahit, Disney leads the domestic box office with $366 million so far this year. That is 28 percent below what it had earned by this time last year, but ``Atlantis'' should help the studio make up the difference, said UBS Warburg analyst Christopher Dixon.

After posting the second-best Memorial Day weekend opening ever with $75.2 million over four days, ``Pearl Harbor'' earned half that the next week. ``Shrek,'' by comparison, fell off 39 percent in its second weekend but has held strong and has earned $176 million since May 18.

It's been a strong year for movies, with the domestic box office running 9 percent ahead of this time last year and several big movies yet to debut. At that pace, it is on track to top the record set last year of $7.7 billion.