'Indiana' will get us out of this

It costs more than $50 to fill the gas tank, home values are plummeting, good jobs are hard to come by, and the dollar's so weak that even a Canadian vacation seems beyond reach.

All together, it has the makings for a wonderful summer in Hollywood.

It's not that the film business wishes ill on anyone (besides restaurant hosts assigning bad tables, at least), but the economy's loss may very much be the studios' gain. Moviegoing historically has proved more than resistant to downturns -- theater attendance actually increased during three of the last four recessions. And this year, Hollywood hopes the downturn could kindle a near record-breaking May-to-September season.

"I think we have a really good shot of this summer's [box office] matching last summer," Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion picture group, said in reference to 2007's record summer haul of $4.18 billion. "I think it's really going to be that big."

As previous downturns in gross domestic product have proved, popular culture -- tracing back from the Depression-era hit song "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" -- can prosper when times are tough. If you're struggling to pay the bills, why not let Angelina Jolie take your worries away?

The movies-cure-all-ills formula seems to favor big-budget "event" films. Some of the most celebrated blockbusters of the last several decades -- "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Jaws" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" -- premiered in the midst or on the heels of a recession. In 2001, which had a recession from March to November, theater admissions climbed to $8.4 billion, from $7.7 billion in 2000, according to the Motion Picture Assn. of America.

"If there's anything that's recession-proof, it's an event picture," said Jeff Blake, chairman of worldwide marketing and distribution for Sony Pictures.

Thanks to what studio executives and theater owners categorize as a wave of shoddy spring movies -- "88 Minutes," anyone? -- movie attendance this year is down about 6% from the same time a year ago, according to the tracking firm Media by Numbers.

But when "Iron Man" starts playing Thursday night, the box office doldrums are likely to vanish. Rival studios and box office prognosticators say the comic-book adaptation could gross more than $80 million in its first weekend. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which audience surveys show has astonishingly strong interest among children, probably will sell substantially more tickets when it opens May 22.