It's 20 years since the first multiplex cinema opened in the UK,heralding a revolution in movie-going. But, as the box office emerges from its longest slump since that groundbreaking day, Steve Pratt asks if the sheen has come off the multi-screen.

BATMAN failed to do it in his return to the screen. So did Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, as hired killers Mr and Mrs Smith. And Hollywood heavyweight Tom Cruise could fight alien invaders but even his box office clout wasn't great enough to reverse the trend.

War Of The Worlds, Cruise's latest screen collaboration with director Steven Spielberg, failed to halt the US cinema's box-office slump. For 19 weeks the total revenue generated by the top 12 films was lower than the 2004 figure.

The studios weren't exactly going broke but the longest slump in two decades gave the industry a real wake-up call as the summer blockbuster season got under way.

But wait, who's that fast approaching on the horizon? It's the Fantastic Four, the superhero stars of Marvel's longest running comic book series and now saviours of the film business.

Not only did they see off screen villain Dr Doom but relieved the gloom hanging over Hollywood. The Four's better-than-expected $56m opening pushed the top 12's total to $141m, up 2.25 per cent on the same weekend last year.

"It took four superheroes to end this slump and Hollywood is grateful," comments a relieved industry observer. "Comic book movies, if properly marketed, are exactly what mainstream moviegoers want to see in their summer movies."

The news isn't all good. This downward box office trend is reflected in ticket sales throughout Europe as well as North America. Last weekend, when Madagascar and Wedding Crashers opened, takings in the UK were 24 per cent lower than the same week last year. The previous week they were 48 per cent lower.

Not the sort of news exhibitors want to hear as the 20th anniversary of the opening of the first multiplex in this country is celebrated. That was The Point in Milton Keynes, swiftly followed by the UCI multiplex at Gateshead MetroCentre.

Back across the Atlantic, the sluggish box office has perked up but revenue is still seven per cent down on 2004. With movies and marketing costing more and more, studios need to analyse why early summer offerings, such as Batman Returns and War Of The Worlds, have done well but not as well as hoped.

THEY can take heart from the fact that international box office is increasingly important. Many American films make more money in foreign markets than at home. But any crisis in US cinemas will be reflected in what's shown in our multiplexes.

UK cinema admissions were 171.3 million last year, the second highest figure for 32 years, after 2002. The number of tickets sold has increased by nearly 50 per cent in the past decade. At £838.6m, box office receipts were 3.6 per cent ahead of 2003 and 3.3 per cent greater than in 2002.

"Yet the public's taste for cinema, where - officially, at least - new films may be seen first, is too fickle for comfort," says Mark Batey, chief executive of the Film Distributors' Association (FDA).

"Last year, UK cinema recovered the ground lost in 2003 and came close to matching the admissions total of 2002, still the pinnacle of the last 30 years.

"But the spectacular year-on-year admissions growth of the 1990s, the full decade of the multiple revolution, now seems a long time ago. The much yearned-for milestone of 200 million admissions remains a challenging distance away."

Multiplex building has slowed to a virtual halt. Cineworld in Sunderland was one of the few new openings in the past 12 months. There have been closures as well - the Odeon in Newcastle city centre closed as a new Odeon up the road at the Gate opened. The Warner in the city closed barely a decade after opening. Recent sales and takeovers mean that the majority of cinemas in the UK are owned by just three companies.

America's biggest slump since video machines hit the market could be just a blip. "Hollywood's summer of discontent", as it's been dubbed, is partly a result of 2004 being such a bumper year thanks, among other things, to Spider-Man's massive $180m opening and Mel Gibson's subtitled religious drama The Passion Of The Christ taking more than $370m.

Measuring up to 2004 was always going to be difficult. Studios made it more difficult for themselves by failing to spread the big hitters more evenly throughout the year. The first half lacked crowd pullers. The best, they hope and pray, is yet to come. A late surge of box office revenue is a certainty as the new Harry Potter picture and King Kong, the latest from The Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson, open towards the end of the year.

Some wonder if Hollywood has simply run out of decent ideas, blaming the box office downturn on the product. Evidence suggests a lack of originality and creativity with all the remakes, sequels and adaptations of TV shows being made. Batman Returns, Bewitched, Herbie: Fully Loaded and The Dukes Of Hazzard are just a few of the title that make a cinemagoer feel like Bill Murray experiencing the same 24 hours over and over again in Groundhog Day.

The movies aren't particularly bad, just pale imitations of something we've seen before. The play-it-again formula doesn't look so foolproof now.

"The biggest problem is the films the studios are releasing aren't generating the sort of excitement they have generated in the past from big films," says one executive. "Hollywood is just running out of fresh ideas, so the studios are looking to sequels and remakes."

There are fears that the boom in the sale of DVDs, which have taken over from videos, is affecting cinema business. Again, the blame is partly theirs as the window between cinema and DVD release is getting shorter. Movies are being released on DVD as soon as two or three months after debuting in cinemas.

Most summer blockbusters will be available for home viewing by the end of the year. Distributors won't wait any longer because that's the time of year when sales are high and they don't want to look a Christmas gift horse in the mouth.

One reason for rapid cinema-to-DVD release is piracy. Film theft in the UK reached an all-time high in 2004 as FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) stepped up its fight against illegal copying, with seizure figures nearly doubled.

PIRATE copies of many of the big movies are often available before a film has even opened. Nearly three million pirate DVDs were seized, making Britain the world's black market film capital after the US.

Moviegoers need to be convinced that a film is worth going out to see, if not they'll wait until it's out on DVD and they can watch it in the comfort of their own home.

The increase in sophisticated home cinema systems and the availability of movies through satellite and digital TV packages and online rental is making it easier and cheaper to watch at home than have a night out at the pictures.

With a big plasma screen and speakers, you can create your own mini-multiplex in your living room. Simply order your film from a pay-per-view channel, download from the net or slip a DVD into the player. If you're prepared to wait a couple of years, you can eventually see the film on terrestrial TV.

For some, nothing beats the cinema experience of sitting in a large dark space with lots of other people, sharing the laughter and tears, thrills and spills, emotional ups and downs of watching a movie on a big screen with wrap-around sound.

"If a movie is really good, people will go and see it in the theatres," says Randy Sanchez, from LA-based box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. "You can't see a movie like Star Wars or The Lord Of The Rings on DVD and get the full film experience. People will always want to go to the movies to escape."