STUDIO SPOTLIGHT There was no $300M+ blockbuster like Independence Day for Twentieth Century Fox in 1997. Instead it was a year of disappointing results from sequels as mega-budgeted films failed to draw enough moviegoers to justify their exorbitant costs. All was not lost, however, as a brave Jedi knight used The Force to lure millions into the multiplexes as the Star Wars trilogy returned with a vengeance. Overall, the Fox slate of new wide releases in 1997 stood at 15, up 2 from 1996, as its haul for the year was about $640M.

Destroying the myth that blockbuster openings can only occur in the summer and holiday seasons, Star Wars - Special Edition invaded theaters at light speed and posted a record $35.9M weekend gross leaving all others in the dust. Star Wars euphoria spread as moviegoers of all ages rushed to see the George Lucas film on the big screen. Some were reliving days of old while others never had the chance to see it in theaters the first time around. Star Wars collected $138.2M and was followed by the Special Editions of The Empire Strikes Back ($67.5M) and Return of the Jedi ($45.4M) which showed diminishing returns as Star Wars hysteria became overkill. Nevertheless, for six out of seven weeks, one of the movies from the trilogy claimed the number one spot. The revamped trilogy eventually sucked over $250M out of the pockets of ticket buyers domestically and another $200M+ overseas.

The spring and summer brought back-to-back big-budget disappointments. Volcano and Speed 2, which cost a combined $260M, ended off with less than $50M each in ticket sales. Volcano ($47.5M) opened less than three months after competing lava flick Dante's Peak ($67.2M) which hit cinemas in February. Speed 2 ($48.1M) never had much of a chance and grossed less than half of the $121.2M that the 1994 original collected. Luckily, both Volcano and Speed 2 are faring much better around the world as their global tallies are $120M+ and $150M+ respectively. Other spring and summer titles included Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, ($8.1M) Inventing the Abbotts ($5.9M), Out to Sea ($28M) and Picture Perfect ($31.1M).

In the fall, Fox witnessed one of their biggest surprises of the year as Soul Food gobbled up $11.2M on opening weekend in 1,000 less theaters than Fox stablemate The Edge which debuted to just $7.7M. The pictures should ended off with $43.5M and $27.8M respectively. The studio's lowest-grossing movie of the year came in October as A Life Less Ordinary was dead-on-arrival and managed just $4.3M overall.

Finally, the holiday season brought the long-awaited animated film Anastasia ($58M thus far) which did not hit the jackpot, but posted a successful and decent run and proved that there is a market for non-Disney animation. Another highly-anticipated entry from the Fox family was the franchise film Alien : Resurrection which is on its way to becoming the lowest-grossing of the series as it should die out at $48M. Overseas prospects look good for Anastasia which is just rolling out while Resurrection has been playing solidly abroad paving the way for a fifth Alien pic. Home Alone 3 was the last film for Fox in 1997 and it has attracted small audiences as it makes its way to a final gross of around $31M.