Scott's World -- UPI Arts & Entertainment

HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Encouraged by the 2001 highest box-office grosses in history, the major studios have scheduled a healthy number of new films for 2002.

Together, the most prolific studios -- Disney, Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. -- will produce 151 announced new films this year. There may be additional starters revealed during the year and perhaps some cancellations depending on box-office results during the coming months.

Leading the pack with projected movies are Warner Bros. and Sony with 28 pictures each, and Disney with 23. They are followed by MGM and Universal with 20 apiece, Paramount with 19, and once-mighty Fox with an anemic 13.

Warner Bros., top grosser of last year with $1.2 billion in the till, probably has the closest thing to a sure hit coming up. It is "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" -- now in production -- following up on the highest-grossing movie of 2001, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" with more than $305 million.

Last year Warner released 31 movies, and topped all other studios for total income for the year.

Among Warner's major releases this year will be a fair share of teen attractions: "Scooby-Doo," "The Powerpuff Girls," "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood," "Eight-legged Freaks," "Fear.com," "Analyze That" and "Death to Smoochy."

This winter's releases include "A Walk to Remember," "Collateral Damage," "The Queen of the Damned" and "Showtime."

No. 2 Sony's 28 films open this month with "The Mothman Prophecies," followed by "Slackers," "The New Guy," "Panic Room," "Resident Evil" and "The Sweetest Thing."

Disney began the new year with its release of "Beauty and the Beast" in Imax format. It will follow this weekend with the Cuba Gooding Jr. comedy "Snow Dogs," and then by a remake of "The Count of Monte Cristo," "Return to Neverland," "Sorority Boys," "The Rookie" and "Big Trouble" to wind up the winter.

This winter Universal has released "Brotherhood of the Wolf" to be followed by "Big Fat Liar," "Dragonfly," "Harrison Flowers" and the 20th anniversary re-release of "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial."

MGM, showing a resurgence over its modest 12 releases last year, begins its 2002 slate of releases with "A Rumor of Angels" Feb. 1, followed by a remake of "Rollerball" Feb. 28 and subsequently "Hart's War" and "No Such Thing."

Paramount opened the new year with a comedy for kids titled "Orange Country" last weekend and on Feb. 15 will debut "Crossroads," to be followed by "We Were Soldiers" and "Clockstoppers" in March.

Fox's first new picture of 2002 promises much for fans of chop-sockie and dumb comedy, but offers little hope for adult moviegoers, with "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist" next week.

It's not fair to condemn a new movie before anyone has seen it, other than the people who produced and worked in it. But aside from adolescents, who would want to spend money to see "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist?" Next on Fox's skimpy schedule is "Super Troopers," which doesn't suggest a momentous improvement over "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist."

No wonder Fox has slashed its program from 20 films last year to 13 in 2002.

But maybe "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" will help bail out the studio when it opens May 16.

There was a time when Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, Darryl Zanuck, Cecil B. DeMille, Adolph Zukor, Dore Schary, Harry Cohn and other memorable movie moguls were determined to make compelling quality films.

They preferred to produce artistic triumphs that might attract the attention of the motion picture academy members. Certainly, they hoped their movies would earn money, lots of money, enabling them to make bigger and better movies.

They assumed, correctly, that if they made worthwhile movies the public would respond by paying to see them. Today in this bottom-line town in a bottom-line universe the dollar is more important than quality.

Now and again there is a notable symbiosis, evident in Oscars for big box-office pictures.

That was the case with such record-breaking box-office films "Gone With The Wind" and "Titanic," both of which were rewarded with Oscars.

This year could prove to be something of a throwback with box-office champ "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" being a top Oscar contender for nomination.

In that rarefied strata, too, is "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," "A Beautiful Mind," "Gosford Park" and "Mulholland Drive."

Aside from "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," none of the studios' new pictures suggests powerhouse box-office potential along with prospects for an Academy Award nomination for best picture of 2002.

At least not yet.