LOS ANGELES: Even the combined forces of the alien invaders from ‘War of the Worlds’ and ‘Batman’ could not save Hollywood from its most terrifying drama — its worst box office slump in 20 years. Studio executives are crossing their fingers that the ‘Fantastic Four’ comic book superheroes will come to their rescue this weekend and provide a happy ending for the biggest drama in Tinseltown, but hope is fading. North American moviegoers have been staying away from the cinema in droves, put off by a slew of disappointing remakes and sequels, rising ticket prices and the fact that the films they want to see are coming out on digital video disks (DVDs) more quickly than ever, experts said. “There is no denying that this slump is tough for the industry,” said Gitesh Pandya, editor of industry tracker Boxofficegu-ru.com. “The problem is I don’t see it changing anytime soon. “It’s troubling that box office figures have been down for so many weeks, and even more worrying is the fact that, year-to-date, we’re down on last year,” Pandya told AFP of the worst extended slump since 1985, when video machines first hit the market.

Ticket receipts from US and Canadian cinemas — which constitute the lion’s share of returns on the massive investment in major films — have been down, compared with the same period in 2004, for 19 straight weeks, with a 20th expected this weekend despite the release of the ‘Fantastic Four.’ Worse still, ticket receipts are down 7.63 percent compared with 2004, with a total of almost 4.2 billion dollars in sales so far this year, compared with nearly 4.6 billion by the same period last year. While Steven Spielberg’s new epic ‘War of the Worlds,’ starring heartthrob Tom Cruise, performed well when it opened last week, capturing 113 million dollars in six days, it failed to push the overall box office figures above last year’s level. And even Hollywood’s biggest releases scheduled for July — including ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ starring Johnny Depp, ‘The Bad News Bears’ and the ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ — are unlikely to break the duck. Part of the problem is simply that 2005 looks anaemic because

2004 was a bumper year at the North American box office, with major openings like ‘Spider-Man 2,’ which hauled in 180 million dollars in six days one year ago. Then there was the surprise windfall reaped by Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ,’ which delivered more than 370 million dollars. — AP