'SCOOBY' SAVES DOG YEAR FOR TIME WARNER.Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer BURBANK - Second-quarter earnings at AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. Time Warner Inc. were flat but the performance of its Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) . film division- riding a ``Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' and ``Scooby-Doo'' juggernaut, helped offset weakness at the media conglomerate's America Online See AOL. division. The home video release of ``Potter'' has been a smash for Warner Bros. since its release in May and the box office performance of ``Scooby'' surprised skeptics and led to immediate plans for a sequel in 2004. ``The film division is a bright spot,'' said David Joyce, an analyst for Guzman and Associates in Miami. ``Their cash flow was up 31 percent in that division alone. It outperformed my expectations because of the strong home DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. sales of 'Harry Potter' as well as 'Ocean's Eleven.' And 'Scooby-Doo' has been a big hit for them.'' ``Scooby'' had a $54.1 million opening weekend and has earned $148.4 million as of last weekend. Other fairly strong box office performers have been ``The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is a novel written by Rebecca Wells. It is the sequel to Little Altars Everywhere. Unlike its predecessor, which is a series of short stories, Divine Secrets is a novel. ,'' which has a cumulative gross of $66.6 million, and ``Insomnia,'' which has earned $66 million to date. But the studio has also had some bombs this summer such as ``The Powerpuff Girls Movie,'' which has grossed just $10.8 million, and ``Eight Legged Freaks,'' which has brought in a mere $9 million. Other releases failing to catch fire this year include the teaming of Robert De Niro Noun 1. Robert De Niro - United States film actor who frequently plays tough characters (born 1943) De Niro and Eddie Murphy in ``Showtime'' and the Robin Williams drama ``Death to Smoochy smoochy adj (col) → blandengue smoochy adj (inf) → langoureux/euse smoochy adj [music, tape .'' Warner Bros. could score with a trio of high-profile releases in the coming months beginning with the Clint Eastwood film ``Blood Work'' opening Aug. 9 followed a week later by the Eddie Murphy comedy ``Pluto Nash.'' September releases include the drama ``City By the Sea'' starring De Niro and Frances McDormand. But the studio's sure-fire blockbuster comes in November when ``Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' hits theaters. With its built-in, international fan base, the ``Harry Potter'' films are expected to provide a windfall for the studio for years to come. The first film grossed $317.6 million domestically, making it the eighth-highest grosser of all time. Joyce said the studio might have a financially weaker third quarter because of marketing expenses connected to the upcoming ``Potter'' release. ``But overall, the second half of 2002 should be very strong based on the releases that are due,'' he said. The studio broke the $1 billion mark in domestic grosses in 2001 for only the second time in its history on the strength of the phenomenal grosses of ``Potter'' and ``Ocean's Eleven'' as well as other solid hits like ``Training Day'' and ``Cats and Dogs Cats and Dogs A slang term referring to speculative stocks that have short or suspicious histories for sales, earnings, dividends, etc. Notes: In a bull market analysts will often mention that everything is going up, even the cats and dogs. .'' CAPTION(S): photo Photo: The success of ``Scooby-Doo'' and ``Harry Potter'' in the Warner Bros. film division helped spell relief for Time Warner. |
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