Who Said Films Today Are Only for Teenagers?

Despite the contention that adult-oriented drama has become the exclusive domain of cable and network television, movie patrons have braved long lines and winter storms in recent weeks to make hits of such diverse and non-formulaic films as "Cast Away," "Traffic," "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and, to a lesser degree, "Finding Forrester," "Thirteen Days" and "Chocolat" and art-house films such as "Before Night Falls."

Dramas were the main contributing factor to a record Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. Except for the runaway teen hit "Save the Last Dance," serious dramas were the box-office mainstay as they have been for the last several weeks. Business for the first two weeks of the year was up about 40% on average from last year, most of that from increased ticket sales for adult movies.

"It's unprecedented," says Jeff Blake, marketing and distribution president for Sony Pictures. "For one movie drama to do well at this time of year is not uncommon, but this time there's tremendous depth to the market."

Not only are several dramas thriving, but they've actually pushed the envelope this year, managing to survive without cannibalizing attendance from one another. They're coexisting with more obviously commercial titles such as "What Women Want," "Miss Congeniality" and "The Family Man," which also appeal primarily to the over-25-year-old demographic.

Though each film is different in style and structure, the one thing "Cast Away," "Traffic" and "Crouching Tiger" share is an ambiguous (that is, not happy) ending. That they're thriving without following the accepted commercial formula is even more significant.

The only way for that many adult-skewing movies to succeed at one time is for the market to expand to include the elusive, infrequent adult filmgoer, says 20th Century Fox Films co-Chairman Tom Rothman. Exit polling on "Cast Away," Rothman says, indicates the film has become an event among patrons who rarely go out to the movies. As a result, the Tom Hanks survival drama, which has been doing the kind of business usually reserved for teen summer blockbusters, grossed close to $170 million in its first four weeks of release.

Miramax's West Coast president, Mark Gill, offers anecdotal support for Rothman's assessment. "I've been talking to people who only see one film every two or three months," he says, "and they've been seeing a film a week."