'Wedding Crashers' and 'March of the Penguins' have been the season's surprise hits.
Time Warner found success this summer with big-budget films like 'Batman Begins' and surprise hits.
A few months ago, skeptics were predicting a glum summer for Time Warner.
Without a "Harry Potter" for Warner Bros. or any high-profile pics for New Line, Time Warner threatened to become a summer also-ran -- like Sony, which is patiently waiting for its next "Spider-Man."
Instead, Warner Bros. and New Line nabbed the top three box office slots this past weekend with WB's "The Dukes of Hazzard," New Line's "Wedding Crashers" and WB's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."
As a bonus, Warners' "Must Love Dogs" came in at No. 5, and the No. 6 slot went to Warner Independent's surprise hit "March of the Penguins," which has become the second-highest-grossing docu of all time.
Notably, both companies achieved this success without any recently established tentpole franchises, such as "Harry Potter" or New Line's "Lord of the Rings." (The new "Potter" film opens in November.)
In terms of market share, Time Warner, the world's largest media conglom, is now tied with News Corp., with each hovering around 21% year-to-date.
Warner Bros. Entertainment prexy-chief operating officer Alan Horn said it's particularly gratifying that auds are flocking not just to the studio's two event films of the season, "Batman Begins" and "Chocolate Factory." (Horn oversees Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Independent.)
"It reflects our philosophy of putting together a diverse and balanced slate, with each movie being as good as it can be for its genre," Horn said.
Through July 31, 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight had been outpacing Time Warner's filmed divisions, thanks to such pics as "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" and "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."
But Fox did not finance either of those hits. While it retains a tidy distribution fee for both, its payday year-to-date could end up well south of Time Warner's.
Fox-distribbed films have taken in $1.064 billion at the box office year-to-date, compared with $832 million collected by Warner Bros. pictures.
WB is on par with last year's take for the same time period, when "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" dominated.
Warner Bros. doesn't have a perfect track record this summer -- it partnered with DreamWorks on "The Island," a major domestic disappointment that is, however, faring better overseas.
But TW's hit films all went against the odds. Warner banked a lot of money on "Chocolate Factory," a quirky film that defied memories of the earlier pic; "Batman Begins" was an attempt to revive a franchise that had resisted resumption.
And New Line's "Wedding Crashers," which cost $40 million, improbably became No. 1 in its third week of release, challenging the conventional notion that a film needs to score big in its opening round.
"We did believe that 'Wedding' would work and compete in the summer," New Line prexy of production Toby Emmerich said. "The summer is a great place to counterprogram."
"Dukes," too, was risky. Though remakes of old TV shows are considered "safe," it's a gamble that hasn't always worked -- witness the lackluster performance of Sony's "Bewitched" this summer.
Meanwhile, "March of the Penguins" has passed "Bowling for Columbine" as the second-best grossing docu domestically; Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" is still tops (these stats exclude large-format films).
Warner Independent will continue its "Penguin" expansion this weekend, when it ups the number of screens from 1,867 to more than 2,000.
At Sundance, Warner Independent prexy Mark Gill raised eyebrows for partnering with National Geographic Films and paying $1 million to acquire the U.S. and U.K. rights to "Penguins" from French filmmaker Luc Jacquet.
Gill, borrowing from a tactic he learned while working for Bob and Harvey Weinstein, knew he had to recut the pic for U.S. and British auds.
"The French producers told us, 'You know your culture better than we do,' " Gill said. He ordered up a new score, a new narration and brought in Morgan Freeman to provide the voice. The redo cost $600,000, excluding marketing costs, which Gill declined to disclose.
"Dukes" opened No. 1 at the box office this weekend, taking in $30.7 million domestically. Warner Bros. launched a massive marketing campaign for the pic well in advance of the bow date.
Like "Penguins," New Line's "Wedding Crashers" has been one of the surprise hits of the summer, boasting plenty of staying power. It came in No. 2 last weekend, upping its total domestic box office take to $144.1 million.
Contact Pamela McClintock at
pamela.mcclintock@variety.com