at 12:55 on December 24, 2006, EST.
By DAVID GERMAIN

LOS ANGELES (AP) - In the real world, Hollywood's on the warpath to fight movie pirates who bootleg films. On screen, the town kind of owes its business turnaround in 2006 to a gang of pirates led by Johnny Depp.

If not for the US$423-million domestic haul of Depp's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," Hollywood would have been dead-even with its lowly box-office results of 2005, the worst year for movie admissions in almost a decade.

"One movie can make the difference, not only with a box-office boost but a psychological boost for Hollywood," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "You take one or two blockbusters out of the mix, it can really impact the bottom line."

Led by the "Pirates" sequel and such hits as "X-Men: The Last Stand," "Cars," "Happy Feet" and "Ice Age: The Meltdown," studios managed a solid if far-from-spectacular year.

The industry should finish the year with about $9.3 billion in domestic revenues, up 4.2 per cent from 2005, Dergarabedian projected. Factoring in higher ticket prices, admissions should come in at 1.43 billion, up 2.6 per cent.

That compares to a five per cent decline in revenues and eight per cent drop in admissions in 2005 from a year earlier.

"Movie-going is alive and well," said Jeff Blake, vice-chairman at Sony, which expects to break its own 2002 industry record of $1.57 billion at the domestic box office this year from the success of such hits as "The Da Vinci Code" and "Casino Royale."

"I think we gave enough variety this year where we served the entire audience. There were the usual young-male hits, the usual and maybe a few extra family movies. But we also had adult blockbusters like 'Da Vinci Code,' 'Devil Wears Prada' and 'The Departed'."

Through much of 2005, Hollywood was hit with ongoing criticism that its lineup lacked fire and that audiences had grown blase about movies, turning to video games, home theatres and other entertainment options.

Studio executives say last year's troubles were magnified by incessant headlines about the box-office slump, creating a sense among audiences that it was not worth shelling out the money to go to the movies.

"Once a negative vibe gets started and everyone gets on the bandwagon, you're basically challenging the audience to find something worth going to see," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution at Disney, which released "Pirates of the Caribbean." This year, maybe the product lineup isn't any different. Maybe the messages we sent were more compelling."

The negative talk has largely vanished as studios delivered a steady string of successes and relatively few bombs. The 2005 schedule was littered with flops such as "Stealth," "The Island," "The Honeymooners," "Rebound," "House of Wax" and "The Bad News Bears."

This year's most notable duds were "Basic Instinct 2," "Poseidon," "Lady in the Water" and "The Ant Bully." One of the year's most-hyped movies, "Snakes on a Plane," failed to live up to its Internet buzz, but managed a respectable return on its modest budget.

Underachievers were offset by some unexpected $100 million hits that included "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," "The Devil Wears Prada" and "The Break-Up."

"I believe that good movies rise to the occasion. I think we were light on content last year, and we made improvements this year," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros., which had a tough year with "Poseidon," "Lady in the Water" and "The Ant Bully" but also scored hits with "Superman Returns" and "Happy Feet."

"Any business, it's impossible to keep the spiral, keep the chart going up continually every year. You're always going to have one glitch. I think the glitch wasn't that great, and it started people talking and got us turned around just one year later."

While business rose in 2006, Hollywood has not caught up with where it was two years ago. Domestic revenues are off one per cent compared to 2004's, while attendance is down six per cent.

The real turnaround could come in 2007, whose summer lineup looks phenomenal, led by "Spider-Man 3," "Shrek the Third," another "Pirates of the Caribbean" adventure, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and "Ratatouille," the latest animated tale from Pixar, maker of "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles."

"We certainly look out there at next summer and look at it as a huge opportunity and a huge challenge. The opportunity is that when the business is on a roll, you have the ability to open at mind-boggling numbers," said Disney's Viane, whose "Pirates" sequel last summer had a record opening weekend of $135.6 million.

"The challenge, of course, is there's so much good product coming to market next summer, you may find it challenging to be able to maintain a presence in the marketplace."

With Hollywood looking ahead to a potentially huge year in 2007, the downturn of 2005 is generally forgotten. Its main lesson remains, though.

"Make better movies," Warner's Fellman said. "Give the people what they want."


©The Canadian Press, 2006