'War of the Worlds,' 'Longest Yard,' and 'Four Brothers' were legacies of the prior Par team.
Amid a top-to-bottom makeover, Paramount ironically has registered its best summer showing since it released "
Forrest Gump" in 1994.
Thanks largely to "War of the Worlds" and "The Longest Yard," Par finds itself with summer domestic grosses topping $461 million as of Sunday.
The studio's in third place for the summer (defined as the period between the first May weekend and Labor Day) behind Fox and Warner Bros., more than $200 million ahead of fourth-place New Line.
Par's strong performance represents a goodbye gift from the regime led by Sherry Lansing and Donald De Line, who both exited earlier this year.
It also marks an abrupt end to the string of half a dozen disappointing summers for the studio under Lansing.
Except for Sundance purchase "Hustle & Flow," Par's summer slate was assembled by studio chairman Lansing and studio president De Line, who've been supplanted by Brad Grey and Gail Berman, respectively.
It's not the first time a studio has registered a strong performance in the wake of a regime change.
In 1997, after Peter Guber and Mark Canton ankled Sony, the studio saw hits "Men in Black," "Air Force One," "My Best Friend's Wedding" and "As Good as It Gets"; in 1999, after Casey Silver departed Universal, that studio racked up boffo grosses from "American Pie," "The Mummy" and "Notting Hill."
The Grey-Berman regime's mantra thus far has been to aim the development slate more toward younger, edgier films. In recent years, when only a few of Paramount's summer entries met expectations, criticism mounted that Par was being too cautious and relying too heavily on tried-and-true formulas along with remakes and sequels.
Remakes' success
But the success of Paramount's 2005 summer stems largely from a pair of remakes: "War of the Worlds" and "The Longest Yard." It also reps the first time Par has been as high as third since 1998 -- when "The Truman Show" and "Deep Impact" led the way -- and the first time since 1994 that the studio's total summer take has exceeded $400 million.
Par's summer has already more than doubled its seasonal take in each of the past three years, which were marked by downbeat perfs by high-profile pics. Last summer saw the remake of "The Stepford Wives" underperform; in 2003, the "Lara Croft" sequel disappointed; and in 2002, "K-19: The Widowmaker" generated ho-hum returns.
Par's summer could move past $500 million if "Four Brothers," which won the box office last weekend with $21.2 million, has decent legs. Its other summer pics include "Bad News Bears," which performed in line with expectations at $31.5 million; "Hustle & Flow," which took in a moderate $20.7 million but fell short of the high hopes raised by glowing notices; and "The Honeymooners," which flopped with $12 million.
"War of the Worlds" is nearing $230 million domestically, and "Longest Yard" has hit $157 million. DreamWorks co-financed "War," which has topped $332 million offshore, and Sony co-financed "Yard," which has shown little traction in foreign markets.
Paramount's summer total is already $50 million ahead of the 1994 take, when the studio finished in second place due mostly to breakout success from "Gump" along with "Clear and Present Danger."
"Titanic" and "Gump" were the studio's biggest successes during Lansing's 12-year tenure, along with the two "Mission: Impossible" pics. She also helped bring "War of the Worlds" together last summer while opting to wait until this summer to start shooting "M:I 3."
Contact Dave McNary at
dave.mcnary@variety.com