SONY COMES OUT ON TOP 'SPIDER-MAN' SEQUEL HELPS STUDIO NET A HISTORIC TAKE.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

Led by its summer blockbuster ``Spider-Man 2,'' Sony Pictures Entertainment triumphed as the number one studio for the second time in three years in 2004 and amassed the third highest-grossing year of any studio in history.

Sony's victory over second-place Warner Bros., third-place Disney and the remaining major studios was also the reflection of a year in which Sony had seven of its films open at number one and another four bow at number two.

``It's been a terrific year, there's no doubt about it,'' said Rory Bruer, Sony's president of domestic distribution. ``To be number one in box office when you consider the amazing competition from our peers is quite extraordinary. I think we accomplished it by having something for everybody.''

Sony, Warner Bros. and Disney all surpassed $1 billion in domestic grosses during the year, but Sony was not on track to beat its own single- year record of $1.573 billion set in 2002. The second-highest year still belongs to Disney, which took in $1.520 billion in box-office receipts in 2003.

The $373.4 million earned by the big-budget blockbuster ``Spider-Man 2'' was backed up by the $100 million-plus grossers ``50 First Dates'' and ``The Grudge'' in addition to strong numbers from ``You Got Served,'' ``Hellboy,'' ``Resident Evil,'' and ``The Forgotten,'' which all opened at number one.

Warner Bros. is currently riding the popularity of ``Ocean's Twelve,'' which opened at number one with nearly $40 million and has remained strong, and of ``The Polar Express,'' which had a tepid opening but kept gaining speed all the way past $100 million. The May release ``Troy,'' starring Brad Pitt, failed to live up to pre-release hype domestically and peaked at $130 million, but it was a smash overseas.

The studio had the year's fourth highest-grossing film in ``Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,'' which took in $249.4 million domestically, and other hits included the sequel ``Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed'' ($84.2 million) and the buddy comedy ``Starsky & Hutch'' ($88.2 million).

But Warner Bros. also had its share of letdowns, starting with the Oliver Stone-directed epic ``Alexander,'' which opened with a resounding thud over Thanksgiving weekend.

``Overall we had a fabulous year,'' said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros.' president of domestic distribution. ``We are extremely consistent and have a very balanced schedule. The baseball player will get up to bat 4-5 times a game, and if you bat .500, you are leading the league. We are get up to bat 25 times a year and we are batting a lot better than .500. That's why we are at the top of our game.''

Disney deserves the comeback studio of the year award for its stunning run of successes during the last four months of 2004, resulting in Disney surpassing $1 billion in domestic grosses for the ninth year.

The biggest hit was, predictably, ``The Incredibles,'' which was the latest in a series of successful Pixar Animation Studios films released by Disney. ``The Incredibles'' has earned more than $240 million domestically and counting.

``If you looked at us in July, we were at $400 million and $1 billion seemed light years away,'' said Chuck Viane, president of Disney's Buena Vista Distribution.

While Warner Bros.' Fellman compared the box-office derby to baseball, another sport metaphor came to Viane when he reflected on Disney's year.

``I always look at it kind of like a football game. You have four quarters and sometimes you score a lot in the first half and sometimes you do all your scoring in the final three minutes,'' Viane said.

Disney began 2004 as the reigning box-office champ, coming off one of the best years in its history. But it soon had a string of expensive failures on its hands. It wasn't until ``The Village,'' a thriller from M. Night Shyamalan released July 30, that Disney had its first $100 million grosser of 2004. That was followed two weeks later by ``The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement,'' which went on to gross a solid $94.7 million.

Then came the one-two November punch of ``The Incredibles'' and of the Nicolas Cage adventure flick ``National Treasure,'' which surprised most box-office experts with three straight weeks at number one and a domestic gross of more than $135 million to date.

DreamWorks, which was not much of a presence in all of 2003, came roaring back in 2004 by releasing ``Shrek 2,'' the highest-grossing film of the year. The popular computer-animated film, now a smash on home video, grossed $436.7 million domestically. On the heels of that success came a second computer-animated hit, ``Shark Tale,'' which grossed nearly $160 million.

DreamWorks also scored a $100 million-plus-grossing hit with the Tom Cruise-Jamie Foxx crime drama ``Collateral.''

``DreamWorks was saving it up for the summertime,'' said Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo. ``Basically 'Shrek 2' performed beyond anyone's expectations.''

For fifth-place 20th Century Fox, it was a solid year peppered with many hits. The biggest was the Memorial Day weekend release ``The Day After Tomorrow,'' which was never able to overtake ``Azkaban'' for number one but nevertheless earned an impressive $249.4 million.

Fox also scored with the Will Smith blockbuster ``I, Robot,'' which took in $144.8 million during the summer, and the $114 million grossed by the comedy ``Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.'' Other solid Fox hits were ``Alien vs. Predator'' ($81 million) and ``Garfield'' ($75 million).

``Fox had an outstanding summer with one hit after another from April through August,'' Gray said.

Sixth-place Universal Pictures has an end-of-the year smash on its hands with the comedy ``Meet the Fockers,'' which bowed in theaters Dec. 23 and was poised to gross more than $100 million heading into its second weekend. Universal also had 2004's first hit comedy with ``Along Came Polly,'' with those comedies sandwiching the summer smash ``The Bourne Supremacy,'' which earned $175 million at the box office.

Universal's May release ``Van Helsing'' kicked off the summer season and was designed to be the start of a franchise. But those plans were scratched when ``Helsing'' stalled at $120 million domestically, far less than what had been hoped for.

Seventh-place Paramount Pictures' year was salvaged somewhat by the strong number one opening of ``Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events,'' starring Jim Carrey. The studio also had the surprise smash ``Mean Girls,'' which took in $86 million domestically, the animated hit ``The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie,'' and the modestly budgeted comedy ``Without a Paddle,'' which quietly grossed $58 million.

Paramount got more ambitious in 2004 with such big-budget films as ``Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,'' ``The Stepford Wives'' and ``The Manchurian Candidate,'' but none managed to pass $65 million domestically. Still, no Paramount release performed worse than the remake of ``Alfie,'' starring Jude Law, which stalled at $13.3 million.

New Line Cinema started the year strong with ``The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'' firmly ensconced in first place, and the studio also had a number one opening weekend with ``The Butterfly Effect'' early in the year. New Line also had unexpectedly major success with ``The Notebook,'' a romantic drama that played steadily all summer and grossed $81 million.

Newmarket Films made its way into the top 10 high-grossing studios largely on the strength of the year's surprise blockbuster ``The Passion of the Christ,'' which earned $370.3 million and was the year's third-biggest hit behind ``Shrek 2'' and ``Spider-Man 2.''

Miramax Films and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were not major box-office players in 2004, although each had a number one opening, with ``Kill Bill: Vol. 2'' and ``Barbershop 2: Back in Business'' respectively.

Lions Gate made its presence felt and edged ahead of MGM with the success of Michael Moore's ``Fahrenheit 9/11,'' which opened at number one in June and went on to become the highest-grossing documentary in history with a domestic take of nearly $120 million.

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) ``Spider-Man 2''

(2 -- color) ``Shrek 2''

(3 -- color) ``The Passion of the Christ''

Box:

SONY SOARS IN STUDIOS SHOWDOWN (see text)

Source: Box Office Mojo