Can Hollywood reverse its box-office slump?

LOS ANGELES — What if you spent hundreds of millions of dollars making and marketing a bunch of movies and nobody cared enough to watch them?

Hollywood is living out that nightmare as it suffers through its longest box office slump in five years.

The summer season's first big release, "Kingdom of Heaven," made just $19.6 million domestically over the weekend, even less than distributor 20th Century Fox originally estimated, according to final box office figures released Monday.

The lackluster performance of "Heaven," a historical epic directed by Ridley Scott, contributed to the 11th-consecutive weekend in which grosses were lower than those from the same weekend last year. That puts 2005's box office receipts 5.6 percent behind last year.

Even more troubling is that actual ticket sales trail 2004's by 8.4 percent with Hollywood's best hope for a turnaround — "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith" — not due until later this month.

"We have a situation at the box office right now where people just aren't excited to go to their local multiplex," said Gitesh Pandya, editor of BoxOfficeGuru.com. "They look at the marquee and just yawn."

The only 2005 releases to cross the $100 million mark domestically have been the Will Smith romantic comedy "Hitch," which is the highest-grossing movie of the year with $177.6 million in ticket sales, and the Vin Diesel family comedy "The Pacifier," which has been a surprise smash, earning $109.4 million to date.

"We always hope and expect to have a surprise hit or two in the year but we haven't had that this year," said John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners. "But our view is that it is primarily related to the product released in that period and not any cause for structural concern."

One problem has been several disappointing sequels in 2005. "XXX: State of the Union" was not only missing original franchise star Diesel, but also missing an audience. It's made a paltry $20.9 million over two weeks.

The Sandra Bullock comedy "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous" has earned a disappointing $45.9 million domestically, less than half of what "Miss Congeniality" grossed in 2001; "The Ring Two" also never really caught fire and has peaked at $75.9 million. "The Ring" made $128.6 million during its run in 2003.