2003 ENTERTAINMENT: FINDING MORE THAN A BILLION IN REVENUE MOVIE STUDIOS' TAKES SURGE IN 2003.

Byline: Rob Lowman Staff Writer

It took a very small fish to make the biggest splash in films in 2003. ``Finding Nemo'' - the charming animated tale from Pixar and Disney released in summer - took in almost $340 million at the domestic box office, putting it at No. 8 for all time, just behind ``The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,'' which came out at the end of last year.

``Nemo'' then made history by becoming the best-selling DVD of all time, selling 15 million discs in the two weeks after its release on Nov. 4, outdistancing the previous leader, ``The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' by a half-million. It also sold 5 million copies on VHS. The studios estimated that video sales to that point were more than $360 million. Throw in its foreign grosses of more than $230 million, and ``Nemo'' becomes a whale of a billion-dollar tale.

Of course, New Line's ``The Two Towers'' made its own billion with more than $340 million domestically and $580 million overseas. Plus, there were two DVD releases of it this year - one (the theatrical release) in August and an extended version on Nov. 18, which sold close to 1 million copies its first day at a list price of about $40. Storming into theaters now is ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,'' the third installment of the hugely successful franchise directed by Peter Jackson - and it's expected to sweep its way to another billion.

``Nemo'' wasn't Disney's only major success. Another watery summer hit, ``Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,'' took in more than $304 million domestically and $344.2 million overseas. Copies of ``Pirates'' also flew off the shelves when it was released in early December. On Thanksgiving Day, Disney become the first studio in Hollywood history to gross $3 billion in worldwide box-office sales in one year, which surpassed Sony's $2.86 billion of 2002. The news came at a time when Roy Disney, the nephew of Walt, quit Disney's board, denouncing the management style of company CEO Michael Eisner.

Much of the rest of the news was fairly typical, with stars preening and smiling in their usual way as they promoted films. There was, however, at least one controversy brewing in the film world. Parts of the Mel Gibson-directed ``The Passion of Christ'' were previewed earlier this year, setting off concerns that the film, which is in Aramaic and stars Jim Caviezel as Jesus, was anti-Semitic.

Gibson was still re-editing the movie in early December, pulling it at the last minute from a Roman Catholic film festival in Rome. Christian fundamentalists and Web site personality Matt Drudge, who have seen earlier versions of ``Passion,'' have defended the film, but that has done little to allay fears that Gibson's conservative reading of the New Testament might be seen as anti-Jewish. The film is scheduled for release on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004, just before Easter and the Oscars.

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(1) Disney and Pixar's ``Finding Nemo'' netted $1 billion in total sales after DVD and VHS releases worldwide.

(2) ``The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' brought in a billion dollars, and the series' final film is expected to do the same.