BELIEVE THE HYPE AS MORE AND MORE FILMS LIVE OR DIE BY THE OPENING WEEKEND, THE TINSELTOWN MARKETING MACHINE RUNS NONSTOP.

Byline: Valerie Kuklenski Staff Writer

When Major League Baseball agreed to put ``Spider-Man 2'' images on bases in all the stadiums as a way to hype the release of the expected blockbuster, purists balked. Their protests stopped the plan, but major league parks still will be inundated with promotions for the movie around the time of its release on June 30.

While you may go to the cineplex because of a favorite star, a friend's recommendation or a critic's favorable review, the odds are that you've already been softened up. With films costing hundreds of millions of dollars, it is ever more important to have a big opening day.

And who's softening you up? It's small creative shops barely known outside Hollywood such as Aspect Ratio, Poster Child, Gas Station Zebra, Trailer Park, Midnight Oil and the Ant Farm. They cut together theatrical trailers and TV commercials, plaster two-dimensional promos on every flat surface in town from bus panels to brick walls, devise Internet come-ons and work up joint advertising campaigns with other companies - all with the goal of putting millions of behinds in movie theater seats.

They celebrated their industry's best work recently at the 33rd annual Key Art Awards, where ``Scary Movie 3'' and ``Dumb & Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd'' were considered as prize-worthy as ``Cold Mountain,'' ``Seabiscuit'' and ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.''

``This is the only awards show where the seat fillers are more important than the people whose seats they're filling,'' emcee Rob Schneider quipped. He got a good laugh with that line, but he was wrong.

More than ever, studios are relying on North American opening-weekend ticket sales to recover a good chunk of a film's budget rather than expecting it to endure for three or four months in theaters.

``I think the reality of our business today is that if a movie doesn't work in its opening weekend, then it's done,'' said Pamela Levine, co-president of domestic theatrical marketing for 20th Century Fox. ``And that's a different world to be in than where we were five, certainly 10 years ago. Unfortunately, the marketplace has just become more crowded.''

Levine said older moviegoers may rely on reviews or word of mouth when choosing a film, but for the majority of fans, the marketing campaign is the biggest factor in the box office.

``There's no question that, because we are building toward that opening weekend, marketing plays an increasingly important role in terms of letting the consumer know that the movie is there, making it jump out from the competition and telling them why this is the movie that they want to go spend their $7 to $9 on,'' said Levine, whose big summertime campaigns include ``The Day After Tomorrow,'' ``Garfield: The Movie'' and ``I, Robot.''

``Why is it a theatrical experience? That's one of the big questions these days,'' she said. ``With the increase of DVDs and the number of options available to consumers at home, you have to tell them that there's a reason this is something they should see in a theater. The baby sitter and the popcorn - we realize that it's an investment of their time and their money.''

Part of problem is that theater owners are inclined toward the sure thing, which brings not only higher ticket sales but also greater receipts at concession stands. And when they invite a cash cow like ``Shrek 2'' to tie up 4,223 of the nation's 35,774 screens, some other movies get put out to pasture.

``If you look at this summer, it's kind of an unprecedented example of a huge movie coming out every weekend,'' Levine said. ``You go through the last few weeks and you have 'Van Helsing,' 'Troy,' 'Shrek 2,' 'Day After Tomorrow,' 'Harry Potter (and the Prisoner of Azkaban).' I don't think we've ever seen a five-week lineup like that, and so the stakes are just incredibly high.''

And not all the screen-dominating blockbusters are out yet. There's still ``Spider-Man 2,'' Will Smith's ``I, Robot'' on July 16, spy thriller ``The Bourne Supremacy'' and Halle Berry's ``Catwoman'' on July 23, and Tom Cruise in ``Collateral'' on Aug. 6.

Fortunately for the studios, corporate executives are bitten hard by the Hollywood bug. Companies everywhere, from carmakers to candy sellers, have been willing to alter their manufacturing processes and to commit to bigger ad campaigns to link their products with the appropriate film. Have you seen the ``Shrek 2'' ogre-sized M&Ms in moss green and rust brown or noticed the Shrek Hamburger Helper?

Rick Rekedal, who handles toy and video game licensing for DreamWorks, said the original ``Shrek'' had relatively little in the way of merchandising because vendors had no idea how huge a hit the movie would be. So, for the sequel, DreamWorks is pulling out the stops on its biggest cross-promotional effort to date.

Rekedal said even before the movie opened, the ``Shrek'' Operation game was said to be ``really huge'' for toy maker Hasbro. And each commercial for that game is a subtle reminder to see the movie. Again. Or to buy the DVD when it comes out in November. Just before ``Shrek 2'' opened, DreamWorks released the first film on DVD packaged with a second disc called ``Shrek 3-D,'' which was nothing more than the 15-minute short that is seen at Universal Studios as part of the ``Shrek 4-D'' attraction. Well, you do get 3-D glasses.

It's impossible to separate completely the impact of ``Shrek'' Dial soap dispensers, pajamas, chess sets and Etch-A-Sketches from the box-office results, which have topped $257 million in just two weeks, a chunk of that impressive figure in cut-rate kids' admissions. But Rekedal suspects it's the promotional partners who reap the benefits of the movie's popularity rather than the studio selling more tickets off a stuffed donkey.

``I think very much the movie drives (sales of) this stuff,'' he said in a room brimming with boogie boards, video games, mylar balloons and specially labeled Pepsi bottles. ``We're the tail of the dog.''

Successful marketing campaigns sometimes put the star and the story out there, such as the jack-in-the-box lobby display of Will Ferrell in ``Elf,'' while others win with understatement, such as the minimalist ``5-15'' poster for ``The Matrix Reloaded,'' which traded on franchise familiarity and drilled the opening date.

But the industry recognized its own shortcomings at the Key Arts with an ``in memoriam'' package that ran down notorious flops, including ``Gigli,'' ``Willard,'' ``Duplex,'' ``Boat Trip,'' ``Marci X'' and ``Sinbad.''

Mike Kaiser, a designer of the ``Matrix Reloaded'' poster, said there is a growing awareness of the Key Art Awards and, by extension, the movie marketing business.

``It's grown into a great big thing, for better or worse,'' he said.

Nielsen MonitorPlus reports that advertising spending by the studios and major independents hit nearly $3.3 billion last year, an increase of $200 million from 2002. And with increases in advertising rates and the demands of standing out in a media-saturated universe, all signs point to it continuing to rise.

Director John Turteltaub (``Phenomenon''), a presenter at the Key Arts, made note of that trend: ``When I see all this great work - the trailers, the one-sheets, the TV spots - I understand why there are no net profits.''

Valerie Kuklenski, [phone]

valerie.kuklenski(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) GOT YOUR FILL YET?

Hollywood hype reacing fairy-tale proportions

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

(2) This jack-in-the-box lobby display for ``Elf'' made the movie and its star impossible for filmgoers to miss.

(3) Universal Studios Hollywood rolled out Frankenstein's monster to promote its ``Van Helsing: Fortress Dracula'' ride - and, by extension, to hype ``Van Helsing,'' the movie.

John McCoy/Staff Photographer

(4) Activision's ``Spider-Man 2'' video game will be released June 29, one day before the film opens.

The New York Times