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TINSELTOWN AFTER 9-11 Some people thought 9-11 would change business in Hollywood, but many others thought it would hardly alter American popular culture. Theresa Wilts of The Post wrote: "Even a national tragedy of cataclysmic proportions can alter our cultural DNA only so much. Popular culture reflects the basic id or impulses of the nation, and it's a huge business. Therefore it can be changed only so much." Theater attendance dipped substantially after the attacks for a couple weeks but began to rebound. In fact, 2001 would substantially outdo 2000, with $8.5 billion at the box office, up from $7.7 billion. The strongest performers were comedies, fantasy fare and action movies with no reference to terrorism. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was 2001's top grosser, at $267.8 million. The other top films were the cartoon Shrek, $267.7 million; the actioner Rush Hour 2, at $226 million; another animated feature, Monsters, Inc., at $220 million; and The Mummy Returns, at $202 million. Other winners were the movie version of J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and Training Day, a raw police drama set in Los Angeles, also was a winner. Said Paul Dergarabedian, of the firm Exhibitor Relations, "People stayed close to home, and movies were an entertainment option close to home that were relatively inexpensive. ... On top of that, there were some pretty good movies, or at least movies with popular appeal." Hollywood was fast in changing its product and public relations after 9-11. The studios' and celebs' philanthropic sides appeared, with $10 million for victims from AOL Time Warner, and $1 million each from Rosie O'Donnell's and Disney CEO Michael Eisner's foundations. Among the examples of gear-shifting in product after 11 September: The Arnold Schwarzenegger movie Collateral Damage, about a Los Angeles firefigher who goes to Colombia to avenge a terrorist whose act killed his family, was moved from October 2001 to February 2002. Its original tag line "The war hits home," was tossed out. Zoolander, a Ben Stiller comedy about a clueless male model unwittingly recruited to become an assassin, was set in New York. In one shot, the Twin Towers were erased; in another, they were obscured. Lower Manhattan was never fully shown in the film. Serendipity a romantic comedy, also had the WTC digitally removed. Nosebleed, a Jackie Chan project about a Trade Center window washer who uncovers a plot to blow up the building, was scrapped. A rumor by a Hong Kong newspaper even had Chan originally beginning filming on location at the WTC on 11 September 2001 (see also 9-11 Coincidences). One sample line of dialogue from the script, written in the 1990s: "It represents capitalism. It represents freedom. It represents everything America is about. And to bring those two buildings down would bring America to its knees." The Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith sequel, Men in Black II, had to have an entirely new climax written, as the original was supposed to have been at the World Trade Center. Spider-Man, whose producers never intended to use the WTC and helicopter footage anywhere but trailers, was addressed in postproduction to reflect the new Manhattan. The remake of The Time Machine cut out a scene of meteors raining down on New York City. The Tim Allen farce Big Trouble had a plot which required the cast to find and deactivate nuclear bomb that had been placed on a jet. The movie was bumped deep into 2002. The movie poster the for romantic comedy Sidewalks of New York, with Ed Burns and Heather Graham, once had an NYC skyline made of hundreds of small portraits of people. The backdrop was replaced with one of blue squares because the original had the Twin Towers. The movie was pushed to 30 November 2001 because of its title and premise. "A film celebrating single life in New York just doesn't seem appropriate right now," Paramount vice chairman Rob Friedman said. "It just doesn't feel right." Heist, with Gene Hackman, was moved to November 2001 because it had a scene of him outsmarting airport security. In general, the release schedule was rapidly rejiggered, as romantic films, comedies, fantasies and war flicks were pulled forward, and movies with any remote connection to 11 September themes were banished to 2002.
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