Here's my 2005 Studio Report Card, which offers three grades: first for box-office performance, second for film quality, third for overall.

WARNER BROS.: Marrying A-list filmmakers to scripts that could travel the globe, the studio had a monster year here and overseas, proving that fiscal responsibility can coexist with classy filmmaking. Only three of its 17 releases, notably the latest "Harry Potter" installment, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," were fully financed by the studio; the others were co-productions with various financing partners and private equity funds, enabling Warners to lay off risk but build value in its library. The studio also made a deal with producer Graham King ensuring access to Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp, two of this era's true stars and magnets for top filmmakers.
Performance: A-plus. Quality: B-plus. Overall: A.

20TH CENTURY FOX: Easily the most entrepreneurial studio in town, Fox's unsentimental approach to movies reflects the tough, opportunistic mind-set of owner Rupert Murdoch. The studio's top executives are savvy (if not always well-loved) pros, famously willing to walk away from any deal that's too rich or too risky. (Perhaps that's why you could spend years on the lot without ever bumping into a first-dollar gross filmmaker.) This year's biggest hits were bankrolled by George Lucas ("Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith") and Regency ("Mr. & Mrs. Smith"). But the studio also had major success with "Fantastic Four" and "Robots," while impressing critics with "Walk the Line" and "The Family Stone," a pair of Fox 2000 films that delivered quality at a modest cost.Performance: A-minus. Quality: B-plus. Overall: A-minus.

DISNEY: As it enters the post-Michael Eisner age, the studio remains as enigmatic as ever, daring enough to make its TV shows available on iPods, so corporately timorous that it locked itself out of the Oscar race by making academy members watch its films on those crazy Cinea DVD players. The studio took a big loss last fall, largely because of poor video sales and Miramax flops, but it has a smash with "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" and several surprise hits, including "The Pacifier," "Flightplan" and "Chicken Little," which made up for such under-performers as "Herbie: Fully Loaded" and "Sky High."Performance: B-plus. Quality: B-minus. Overall: B.DREAMWORKS: The days when this studio was a perennial incubator for Oscar films are over, but it had an impressive year internationally, a feat that no doubt played a big role in its sale to Paramount, which desperately needs to revamp its overseas distribution. "Madagascar" was a hit overseas, with the studio also seeing good global numbers from "The Ring 2," "Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit" and even "The Island," which was written off as a flop here but rebounded overseas, leaving "Just Like Heaven" as the studio's biggest loser.Performance: B-minus. Quality: C-plus. Overall: B-minus.

UNIVERSAL: What could possibly go wrong when you have a slate topped by four films all made by Academy Award winners? Oops! Ron Howard's "Cinderella Man" and Sam Mendes' "Jarhead" were costly duds, while Steven Spielberg's "Munich" desperately needs a best picture nomination to gain box-office traction. That leaves Peter Jackson's "King Kong," a critically lauded epic that has mysteriously failed to do epic business. The rest of the year was not so stellar, with low-budget hits ("The 40 Year-Old Virgin") offset by misses big ("Doom") and small ("Serenity"). Chairman Stacey Snider has kept General Electric's cost-cutters at bay, but with her contract expiring this year, the longer she goes without re-upping the more wonderers will wonder what the future holds.Performance: C-minus. Quality: C-plus. Overall: C.

NEW LINE: Another bumpy post-"Lord of the Rings" year for the studio, which returned to its youth-oriented comedy roots with mixed results. "Wedding Crashers" was the year's biggest and best comedy, and it single-handedly transformed the industry's attitude toward R-rated comedies (expect a gaggle of imitators soon). But aside from "Monster-in-Law," the rest of the slate fizzled, with "Son of the Mask" and "Domino" being costly losers, offset only by a pair of critic favorites, "A History of Violence" and "The New World."
Performance: C-minus. Quality: B-minus. Overall: C.

PARAMOUNT: No one can accuse Brad Grey of undue caution, as the new chairman has boldly overhauled this cobwebby studio, bringing in new executive talent and buying DreamWorks, which could help jump-start movie production at a time when the cupboards are nearly bare. In a year of transition, the studio had several flops, notably "Elizabethtown," mitigated by an Adam Sandler hit ("The Longest Yard") that was followed by the mammoth "War of the Worlds." Grey can only hope the DreamWorks deal will lead to more Spielberg blockbusters to come, though it speaks volumes that Spielberg couldn't even be persuaded to move his office from the Universal back lot to Paramount.
Performance: C-. Quality: C. Overall: C-minus.

MIRAMAX/WEINSTEIN CO.: Harvey Weinstein has been lying low lately, perhaps embarrassed by the last months of his reign at Miramax, which resembled one of those "Everything Must Go!" bankruptcy sales. Nothing was too old or decrepit, including "The Great Raid" and "Mindhunters," two films (shot in 2002!) that stumbled out of the Miramax vaults like zombies from a crypt. Weinstein had one nice hit ("Sin City") and has a couple of classy new films in release from his new company, but even longtime Harvey fans have diminished expectations for his new studio's future.Performance:
D. Quality: C-minus. Overall: D-plus.

SONY: When it comes to ineptitude, this studio belongs right up there with the 1962 Mets (who lost 120 games) and the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who went 0-14). Marketing chief Geoff Ammer got the ax, but he was a sacrificial lamb for an Amy Pascal-led production team that appeared out of touch with reality, consistently misjudging the marketplace ("Bewitched"), failing to exercise any fiscal restraint ("Fun With Dick and Jane") and releasing movies ("Zathura") on dates when they were doomed to fail. To add insult to injury, the Academy Award hopes of its costly "Memoirs of a Geisha" are evaporating, insuring it will be a money loser too.

Performance: D. Quality: D. Overall: D.

Pixar Stock Surges on Deal Rumor

Pixar Stock Surges on Deal Rumor
By Claudia Eller and Richard Verrier, Times Staff Writers


Pixar Animation Studios shares soared to a record high Wednesday amid speculation that the company behind "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles" is on the verge of a new deal with — and possibly sale to — longtime partner Walt Disney Co.

The nearly 8% jump in Pixar's stock, to $58.16 a share, comes as Chief Executive Steve Jobs and Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger have been negotiating to extend their companies' long-term distribution pact that ends this summer with the release of Pixar's "Cars."

Mining the minority audience

By Thomas K. Arnold, Special for USA TODAY

Just as the movie studios are reaching out to diverse markets, home-video marketers are aggressively going after black and Latino audiences.
Gospel, with Clifton Powell, arrives Tuesday, a couple of weeks ahead of MLK Jr. Day, Jan. 16.
Screen Gems

The DVD business is 8 years old, and its once-explosive growth is tapering to single digits, so new markets are crucial to the home-viewing business. And minorities are heavy consumers of home entertainment, says Universal's Ken Graffeo.

"According to our research, while Caucasians purchased an average of 8.8 DVDs during the past six months, Latino Americans purchased an average of 13.1 DVDs, and African-Americans purchased an average of 12.8 DVDs during that same time frame," Graffeo says.
At Universal and Warner, executives have created multicultural divisions to market mainstream movies to minorities. Graffeo notes that the Latino market is growing so fast that marketing campaigns are focusing on these consumers.

"Latinos in the United States represent north of $700 billion in (overall) purchasing power," he says. "It is forecast that by 2010, this figure will increase to $1 trillion."
Similarly, he said, "the African-American market currently represents $650 billion in purchasing power and is on track to exceed $850 billion by 2010."

'Faith market' makes its mark

With the emerging success of multicultural markets, faith-oriented movie fans are considered another lucrative niche. 20th Century Fox has a new division that focuses on audiences seeking movies with a message as well as family-friendly fare.
Buoyed by its success in 2004 marketing DVDs of The Passion of the Christ through churches and religious groups, Fox has launched a Web site, www.foxfaith.com.
The site promotes not just religious titles in the Fox catalog such as The Bible but also films and shows that might appeal to the same audience, from The Sound of Music to Strawberry Shortcake videos.

The Passion "certainly gave us our MBA in the faith market," Fox's Steve Feldstein says. "We've created this Web site as a one-stop resource for families and organizations seeking information about quality, all-audience programming."

— Thomas K. Arnold
DVD advertising on networks that cater to minorities, such as Univision and BET, is increasing, as are promotions on radio stations that target these markets.
"We go where the audience is," says 20th Century Fox's Steve Feldstein, whose studio has staged grassroots campaigns in urban markets for the martial arts movie Ong-Bak and Woman, Thou Art Loosed, based on Bishop T.D. Jakes' self-help book.

Gospel, about an R&B singer who returns home after his pastor father falls ill, arrives on DVD today, timed to take advantage of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday on Jan. 16. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is running commercials for Gospel on black cable channels.
For the release Jan. 17 of Sueño, about a Mexican singer who comes to Los Angeles to seek a music career, Sony Pictures is doing radio promotions and DVD giveaways in such key Latino markets as Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Dallas and San Diego.

Latinos are of particular interest to studios because of the growth of the Latino population in the USA. More DVDs are coming to market with Spanish subtitles and language tracks. "Virtually all our films have them," Fox's Feldstein says.

Independent suppliers such as Ventura Entertainment and Xenon Pictures are releasing on DVD movies and telenovelas (TV soap operas) imported from Mexico, Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries. Buena Vista Home Entertainment creates Spanish-language packaging for its major animated family titles.

One of the most aggressive suppliers targeting Latinos is Ventura Entertainment. Unlike the major studios, which promote mainstream movies to Latino audiences, Ventura's Studio Latino division offers films and programs in Spanish.

Since launching Studio Latino in 2003, "our business has doubled each year, and while we expect the growth to level off as the market begins to mature, we still expect double-digit growth in 2006," says Ventura's Gordon Prend.