By Desson Howe Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 5, 2000

Mel Gibson stars in "The Patriot." (Sony)

I'm talking about the movie summer, of course, which started in late April with such audience-entertainment spectacles as "U-571" and "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas."

Memorial Day weekend used to mark the official opening of the Hollywood summer season. But the studios are so anxious to get a jump on the competition, as well as the biggest helping of the year's most profitable period (the Memorial Weekend to Labor Day period accounts for about 40 percent of annual box office), they've expanded their summer.

That's why you'll soon be sitting down for "Gladiator" (opening this weekend); "Battlefield Earth," starring John Travolta as an extraterrestrial Titan (opening next week); and "Dinosaur," Walt Disney's digitally enhanced live-action movie for kids, which opens May 19. By the time August rolls around, you'll be wondering if summer ever ends.

So, what are the exciting big-picture releases this summer? Last year, the studios quaked under the intimidating rumble of George Lucas's "Star Wars" prequel. Yet other movies – like "The Sixth Sense," "Tarzan" and "The Blair Witch Project" – still made money.

Now, with no clear front-runners but a lot of possible favorites, the race is wide open. And Hollywood is banking on a good, and possibly record-breaking, season.

Business has been on the increase throughout the 1990s, reaching an unprecedented $7.4 billion last year, according to the industry publication Variety. In 1999, the summer season alone scored a record $3.2. billion at the box office, an increase of 16 percent from 1998.

One of the biggest weekends is likely to be July 4, when Mel Gibson's "Patriot" points its musket at the live-action/animated "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" and "The Perfect Storm," a climate-as-monster movie in which George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Diane Lane experience the combined forces of three raging weather fronts, a real storm that occurred in 1991.

And there's a difference to this "Rocky." It has cartoon characters, sure, but also the live-action presence of Robert De Niro, Jason Alexander and Rene Russo.

Some other likely winners this year: "Mission: Impossible 2," the sequel to the smash action hit, which brings back Tom Cruise (May 24); the Jim Carrey comedy "Me, Myself and Irene" (June 23); and "X-Men" (July 14), an adaptation of the popular comic book series , starring Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry and others.

Then there's tubby Eddie Murphy's sequel, "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" (July 28), in which the professor tries to get rid of that pesky alter ego once and for all. And Nicolas Cage is looking to boost business for himself with a bang. He stars with Angelina Jolie in the shoot-'em-up action flick, "Gone in Sixty Seconds," opening June 9.

There's an encouraging number of films for children and family audiences this time around, including "Dinosaur," "Fantasia/2000" (June 16) and "Titan A.E." (June 16), Don Bluth's animation fantasy set in outer space. (See family movie picks.)

Of course, these aspiring blockbusters aren't the only things to watch, thank goodness. There will be many alternative, offbeat, independent or just-plain-non-categorizable movies this season.

There is good buzz about "Coyote Ugly" (Aug. 4), about a group of sexy, enterprising women who tantalize customers at a steamy bar. Kenneth Branagh turns once more unto the bard with the June release of "Love's Labour's Lost," a romantic 1930s-style comedy based on the Shakespeare play. And Samuel L. Jackson could make a big score with "Shaft" (June 16), a remake of the blaxploitation classic. And rubbery Jackie Chan is always good for a profitable kickfest. In "Shanghai Noon" (May 26), he's a traveling acrobat from China who comes to America during cowboy days to save a kidnapped princess. Maybe his trip to the Wild West will prove more lucrative than Will Smith's last year. In fact, the latter star is noticeably absent from the Fourth of July sweepstakes this year, after owning that particular weekend in recent years. But he's merely changing the month. He appears as a caddy with Zen-like wisdom in "The Legend of Bagger Vance," which opens Aug. 4.

View the complete chronological list of summer movies.