After a year in which Hollywood all but abandoned the formula blockbuster in favour of low-priced sleepers such as ``The Blair Witch Project,'' the megabudget popcorn flick is coming back to a theatre near you.

The slugfest kicks off next month with a violent Roman epic called ``Gladiator,'' in which World Wrestling Federation-style combatants, led by Russell Crowe, kill each other for sport in packed coliseums. Then there is ``Battlefield Earth,'' starring John Travolta as a 9-foot alien. In all, lots of action, lots of kid stuff, a few comedies - and not much else. Notably missing: romantic comedies, or almost anything else targeted at women. Intimate dramas? Don't even ask.

Says Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group Chairman Dick Cook: ``This year, I think it's back to everyone putting out their big guns.''

But wait a minute. Didn't this strategy bomb? The last time Hollywood tried loading up the season with would-be behemoths, back in 1998, it got movies such as the lumbering ``Godzilla,'' which cost $180 million to make and market world-wide and barely eked out a profit. The previous year brought us major disasters such as ``Speed 2'' and ``The Avengers.''

Last year, by contrast, the traditional blockbuster went into hiding -- largely because most of the studios were afraid to compete with ``Star Wars: Episode 1 -- the Phantom Menace.'' That left lots of room in theatres for modestly budgeted sleepers such as ``Blair Witch'' and ``The Sixth Sense'' to turn huge profits.

But it is back to business as usual this year, with one of the priciest slates in memory. At least six movies released from May through July will likely cost $100 million or more, roughly double last year's number - and that doesn't even count the half-dozen or so others that are nearly as expensive. With so much on the line in each case, the studios are backing their investments with marketing expenditures of $60 million or more. That means that even some movies grossing $100 million or more at the US box office - the traditional benchmark for blockbuster status - wouldn't wind up being considered hits.

The parade of expensive summer gambles includes movies about secret agents ("Mission: Impossible 2"), the Revolutionary War ("The Patriot"), bad weather ("The Perfect Storm"), car theft ("Gone in 60 Seconds"), comic-book heroes ("X-Men") and the supernatural ("What Lies Beneath"), plus the occasional sequel thrown in for good measure ("Nutty Professor II: The Klumps"). The most expensive bet of all may be Walt Disney Co.'s "Dinosaur" - a mix of computer animation and live action that Disney says cost about $130 million, but many others in the industry believe cost more than $200 million.

Yet for all the star power and special effects, studio executives and other Hollywood insiders are hard-pressed to name a consensus favourite. "Mission: Impossible 2," "Dinosaur," "The Patriot." and "Nutty Professor" all get some votes, while "Gladiator" is an early underdog - if a $100 million film can be called an underdog. But some of this optimism is tempered by doubts. For example, "Mission" was finished weeks late, often a sign that the filmmaker is struggling. While other studios have been screening chunks of their films to exhibitors and the media, little has been seen of "Mission" beyond the trailer. "Dinosaur," meanwhile, has a deceptively dark theme: beasts on the slow march to extinction. (Still, in trademark Disney style, the movie somehow ends happily.)

``The Patriot'' may boast a strong performance by Mel Gibson as a pacifist during the Revolutionary War who becomes a one-man killing machine to save his family. But the film's over-the-top violence - one battle scene features a man's head being blown off by a cannonball - and its aspiration to be something more than a popcorn movie, may not be the kind of escapism that sells over the Fourth of July weekend. The projected two-and-a-half-hour running time may not help, either.

So why did Hollywood go back to the risky blockbuster approach after succeeding last summer with sleepers? Partly, last year was an aberration. Coming off some frighteningly expensive flops in 1997 and 1998, the studios were more consciously aiming to keep costs down. Fear of being flattened by ``Phantom Menace'' left the first half of the summer open for smaller films to sneak through. The result was a stream of big hits - a record dozen films released during the May-through-Labor Day season grossed more than $100 million domestically. Because the hits were generally less expensive to produce, they were also more profitable - a phenomenon that for a moment made the notoriously risky movie industry seem like a rational business.

In reverting to its old ways, Hollywood is only doing what seems obvious - bringing out the biggest films when the audience is most available to see movies. According to box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co., about 40 per cent of annual movie ticket sales occur between Memorial Day and Labour Day.``The studios flex their muscles when the audiences are there,'' says Universal Chairman Stacey Snider. Releasing smaller-scale films during the summer still requires huge marketing expenditures - something studios will do only if they think their little films are capable of competing with Cruise, Gibson and company. When Universal decided to release the tiny gross-out comedy ``American Pie'' last July, Snider says, ``We had to ask ourselves, are we going to spend like it's a $75 million film and put our little $11 million baby in this shark pit? In that situation, we said, `Bring it on.' ''

But not every studio comes to the same conclusion, even with what seems like a potential hit on their hands. Disney's Miramax unit recently yanked a romantic drama called ``Bounce,'' starring Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow, off the summer release schedule, redeploying it in the fall. One reason: The film's stars didn't think they could attract enough attention amid the summer clutter.

Some of the behemoths are pitted against each other in tough head-to-head duels. The Friday before the Fourth of July holiday will bring the release of three huge productions: "The Patriot," "The Perfect Storm" from Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros., and Universal's "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle." In all, about $300 million of production costs will be on the line that weekend alone. The competition has studio chiefs posturing early and often. Columbia Pictures Chairman Amy Pascal says there is room in the marketplace for everyone, but advises that rival Warner Bros ``is crazy not to move'' the release date for "The Perfect Storm." Columbia also faces a tough matchup on the unheralded weekend of July 28, when its $100 million "Hollow Man" goes up against Universal's "Nutty Professor" sequel, which is generating some of the best buzz of the season.

While the big-budget epics will be back in the forefront this summer, it doesn't mean that a couple of films you know nothing about won't slip into your consciousness. In the teen/college comedy genre, DreamWorks' "Road Trip" is already generating strong word of mouth, and Miramax's "Boys and Girls" has a hot cast topped by Freddie Prinze Jr. Also enjoying good buzz is the Jackie Chan vehicle "Shanghai Noon," a comedy from Disney's Touchstone Pictures.

(The Wall Street Journal)