Disney's Buena Vista tallies record box office.

List reflects impact of blockbusters on bottom lines

Buena Vista Pictures Distribution Inc. took in a record $1.01 billion total from the U.S. and Canadian box offices last year, becoming the first studio to break the $1 billion barrier and sending it to the top of The List of largest motion picture distribution companies (see page 18).

Distribution companies are the entities that rent motion pictures to theaters in exchange for a cut of the ticket sales.

Buena Vista, the distribution arm of Wait Disney Co.'s three in-house movie-production companies - Hollywood Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures and Touchstone Pictures - drove through 1994 on the strength of the animated children's hit, "The Lion King," which took in more than $300 million domestically. That accounted for nearly 30 percent of Buena Vista's total domestic business.

Prior to the year, Buena Vista President Richard Cook boasted that 1994 would set a record for the company. He was right, turning in the best performance of any distribution company ever.

Buena Vista replaced Warner Bros. at the top of The List. Warner Bros.', paced by its $100 million hit "Maverick," had domestic box office returns of $840 million, putting it in the No. 2 spot for 1994.

Rounding out the top three was Paramount Pictures, with $735 million in domestic box office - $299 million from "Forrest Gump." Paramount moved up from the No. 6 spot on last year's List, when it had box office receipts of $456 million.

Per-picture grosses

But the box office take doesn't tell the whole story. Distribution is a volume business, and those companies releasing a lot of films are apt to have higher receipts.

For example, Disney, releasing 35 films last year, and Warner Bros., releasing 39 films, both had higher receipts than Paramount, with only 20 films released in 1994.

Thus, Paramount averaged a box office return of $36 million per film it released, followed by Disney's average of $28 million per film, and Warner Bros. $21.5 million per film.

"There are two different types of strategies," said Christopher Borde, associate analyst with entertainment research firm Paul Kagan Associates Inc. "Sometimes you try to go for market share and keep a big client base. Other times you go for profitability and forgo market share."

Sony Pictures Entertainment - home of both TriStar Pictures and Columbia Pictures - had a particularly difficult 1994. Box office grosses for the Japanese-owned studio were $498 million, garnering it the No. 5 spot on The List.

Box office boost

By comparison, Sony took in $875 million the previous year - for a 1994 decrease of 43 percent. Given a 1994 slate of 43 releases, Sony averaged only a $12 million return per film.

But generally, most studios around town found 1994 to be a positive year. By the time the 1994 dust had settled, Hollywood had taken in a record $5.2 billion at the box office, topping the 1993 box office gross of $4.9 million.

New Line Cinema, creators of "The Mask," had box office receipts of $359 million for 1994 - double its 1993 take of $179 million.

Gramercy Pictures, distributor of the sleeper hit "Four Weddings and a Funeral," garnered $97 million in 1994, up 148 percent from 1993 receipts of $39 million.

Also showing signs of life was MGM/UA, which saw its box office take increase to $147 million, up from $90 million the year before. That performance was largely driven by the surprise sci-fi hit "Stargate," which took in $67 million at the box office - or 47 percent of all MGM/UA receipts for the year.

MGM has since made plans to increase its production for 1995, when between 15 and 20 films are scheduled for release, compared with last year's 10 films. Credit the increase to Frank Mancuso, who took over the reins at MGM in the summer of 1993 with an eye towards boosting production.

"It takes 18 to 24 months to get a motion picture produced," said MGM spokeswoman Anne Corley. "We are now at the point where we are seeing the films greenlighted by the Mancuso team."