If there was a lesson to be learned in topsy-turvy Hollywood last year, it was to expect the unexpected.
The year's biggest surprise was "The Blair Witch Project," an $80,000 home-video-style horror movie that, fueled by clever Internet marketing, captured the imagination of young moviegoers. It was the year of anti-hype, as heavily touted summer behemoths from such powerhouse teams as Tom Cruise and Stanley Kubrick ("Eyes Wide Shut") and Will Smith and Barry Sonnefeld ("Wild Wild West") were swept aside at the box office by goofball comedies from Adam Sandler and Mike Myers.
And then there was "The Sixth Sense" phenomenon--a pop culture brush fire spread by word-of-mouth. Week after week people kept trooping to the theaters, eager to enjoy the shivers and surprises of a soulfully scary movie.
Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, whose previous two films had come and gone without a trace, "Sixth Sense" had five straight three-day weekends in which it did more than $20 million, a string unmatched by any movie since "Titanic." The $40-million Disney film, which starred Bruce Willis, has already made $275 million in the U.S. alone.
"We're all so overwhelmed by so many entertainment choices that we really crave something that feels authentic," says Universal Pictures Chairman Stacey Snider, whose studio had three $100-million hits ("American Pie," "Notting Hill" and "The Mummy") in the same year for the first time ever. "I saw so many inspired movies [last] year, whether it was 'Three Kings,' 'Sixth Sense,' 'American Beauty' or 'American Pie,' that it really stirred my competitive juices. I kept thinking, 'I want to work with these people.' "
Form Finished Second in Box Office Derby
A year ago, who would've guessed that Willis' unheralded horror film would be a grand slam while his big-budget comedy--remember "The Story of Us"?-with co-star Michelle Pfeiffer and A-list director Rob Reiner--would be a strikeout?
In 1999, Hollywood conventional wisdom was behind the curve. It's true that "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace," the movie envisioned as the year's biggest hit, topped the box-office charts. But it was also the year's biggest letdown. After months of frenzied fan and media hype, the return of the Force was as anticlimactic as the fourth quarter of a Clippers game.
