What Studios Should've Learned From 1998

In Hollywood, hindsight is always in far greater supply than foresight. With that in mind, we offer 10 Box-Office Lessons From '98--pay attention, studio chiefs, there will be a test later.

1. Old shoes in a new box do not new shoes make.

Despite enticing marketing campaigns and hip, smirky ad lines like "Size Matters," movies such as "Godzilla," "The Avengers" and "Psycho" were correctly perceived as the tired retreads they were.

2. A little seltzer down your pants.

Studio executives should be forced to watch "Sullivan's Travels" at least once a year. Audiences were literally starved for comedy, so much so that they went to see the relative few that were released over and over again: "Dr. Dolittle," "There's Something About Mary," "Rush Hour" and "The Waterboy," each of which became a huge hit, whether they were funny or not.

3. No one's afraid of Roger Rabbit--or even a mouse named Mickey.

Animation moved beyond Disney in a big way this year. There have been the isolated non-Disney animated hits before like Warner Bros.' "Space Jam" and Paramount's "Beavis and Butt-head Do America." But 1998 was the first year they arrived in multiples and most (except Warner's terrible "Quest for Camelot") managed to rack up impressive grosses. Non-Disney toons such as "The Rugrats Movie" (Paramount) and "Antz" (DreamWorks) did well; the jury is still out on the year-end spectacle "The Prince of Egypt," also from DreamWorks. And the competition was good for Disney too. "Mulan" was the studio's best summer performer in several years and "A Bug's Life" looks to be almost as big as its computer-animated "Toy Story."

4. Stix Pick Chick Flicks.

While the studios were marveling at how important the under-21 crowd is at the movies (duh?), a few smart executives were paying attention to the underserved female half of the population. The term "chick flick" finally attained respectability, thanks to such female-skewed hits as "City of Angels," "Hope Floats," "Ever After," "The Wedding Singer," "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" and the current "Stepmom." And even in cases where it was virtually impossible to drag men into the theaters along with them ("Stepmom," "Hope Floats") even as dates, women went anyway.

5. An Rx for disaster.

The problem with "Beloved" wasn't that it was a period piece or a women's picture but that it was sold like cough medicine. Ignoring the fact that the history lesson approach sank "Amistad," last year Disney went ahead with a similar "It's good for you" campaign on "Beloved." This is the movies after all, not school.