National Lampoon's stock market leap is no joke.

Stock in its owner, J2, aided by expectations for film

National Lampoon has spiked like a big banana on Wall Street.

Stock in J2 Communications Inc., the West Los Angeles-based moviemaker and owner of the National Lampoon magazine and name, has jumped 340 percent, to $3 a share, in trading last week, up from 69 cents late last year.

And on one day, Feb. 1, more than 1.4 million shares of J2 Communications traded, out of total shares outstanding of 3.1 million.

"That's almost half the float (stock outstanding) in a single trading session," remarked Stan Trilling, veteran broker with PaineWebber Inc. in downtown Los Angeles. "This stock has gone crazy."

Behind the wondrous Wall Street whirl: The movie, "National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon I," starring Emilio Estevez, released to more than 2,000 theaters last weekend.

The film is a spoof of the enormously successful "Lethal Weapon" set of films, starring Mel Gibson.

Too, J2 Communications received a nationwide tout by syndicated columnist Dan Dorfman on Feb. 1, which sparked the heavy trading.

After the Dorfman dulcet, J2 Communications shares rose to $3.375, up $1.50 -- an 80 percent, one-day hike.

Looked at another way, by the end of the trading day, investors had decided J2 Communications was worth -- based on market capitalization -- $10.5 million, or $4.7 million more than the day before.

It is heart-warming recognition, said Chairman and Chief Executive James Jimirro, 54, a former Walt Disney Co. executive who founded J2 Communications in 1986.

Lead by Jimirro, J2 Communications bought National Lampoon in late 1990, and suspended publication of the humor magazine last April. The publication had been a staple on college campuses in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Said Jimirro last week, "When we bought National Lampoon, it was essentially dead in the water. We told people it would be tough to turn around National Lampoon, and that it would take a while. But now we have the movie in place, and the spring issue of the magazine is literally on the printing press as we speak. The market is recognizing what we have done."

The stock's boom is proof that a chuckle can have dollar signs all over it.

The "Loaded Weapon" movie, made in the mold of "Airplane" or "Naked Gun," is funny, said broker Trilling, who has seen a sneak preview.

"I laughed, and the audience laughed like mad," he said.

Lisa Miller, a stockbroker in the Woodland Hills office of Dean Witter Reynolds Inc., is a movie fan planning on seeing the movie. "I was in a theater in Tarzana, waiting for the 'Chaplin' film, when the previews for 'Loaded Weapon' came on," said Miller. "The audience went crazy, absolutely hysterical."

Jimirro said last week he is encouraged by the early response to "Loaded Weapon." "We know the previews are funny, we have been getting good response now for two weeks. It will be up to audiences to decide whether the movie is funny -- I sat, incognito, in a screening for a group of teenagers, who responded well."

But like everybody else in Tinseltown, Jimirro professed not to know for sure if "Loaded Weapon," or any film, would be a sure hit in theaters across the country.

J2 Communications, through its National Lampoon arm, sold the script for "Loaded Weapon I" to New York-based New Line Cinema Corp., in exchange for percentages of the film's gross revenues.

Basically, J2 will reap 5 percent of any New Line's revenues exceeding $18 million from the film, and then 2.5 percent of everything over $36 million. As distributor, New Line will take between 50 percent and 60 percent of what Hollywood calls the film's "B.O." -- box office receipts.

As big as "Loaded Weapon" could be in B.O., with the February run-up in J2 Communications' price, broker Trilling said he now regards the stock as fairly priced.

"Now, the stock is a crap-shoot," said Trilling. "If the film grosses $60 million, that will trickle down to 30 cents a share for J2. That would make the stock about right. But if the film grosses more than $100 million, the stock is undervalued. If you think the film is a dud, now is the time to short the stock."

So far, 1993 has been nearly melodramatic for J2 Communications shareholders. The company was a penny stock all last year, at some points dipping as low as 37.5 cents a share. The National Lampoon magazine, suffering sales and ad dearths, was run off the newstands.

In fiscal 1992, ended July 31, the company lost $1.16 million on revenues of $4.51 million. For the latest reported quarter, ended Oct. 31, the company posted a loss of $74,000 on revenues of $641,000.

In J2 Communications' latest quarterly disclosure statement, a very competitive home video market was cited for holding down profits. Some J2 Communications videos, formerly selling for $29.95 each, have been discounted to $19.95 or $14.95, according to the statement.

With the sad-sack financials, the stock closed 1992 at a little under 69 cents, and $1 a share looked a long way off.

But myriad plans for marketing the National Lampoon name -- always in joint ventures -- were coming to fruition all the while, said Jimirro last week.

In addition to the "Loaded Weapon" movie -- to which two sequels are already planned -- J2 Communications is joint venturing on home videos with Toronto-based distributor Rose & Ruby; offering three-day "Laugh Boat" cruises from Miami with the Dolphin ship line; and will sell a set of playing cards, featuring the best art from the National Lampoon stables. All these ventures will begin reaching consumers this spring.

And, of course, there is the re-introduction of the National Lampoon magazine, slated to hit the newsstands Feb. 15.

The cover of the new National Lampoon magazine will feature a Madonna look-alike, with teasers of the expurgated photos from the sex-vamp's latest book, said Jimirro last week.

What could have possibly been expurgated from Madonna's provocative book, which was entitled "Sex"?

"That's the joke," said Jimirro. "You'll have to buy the magazine to find out."