Bed Sheets Bonanza

Few capitalistic ventures can rival the return on invest ment of a movie megabit, and National Lampoon's Animal House is, in more ways than one, a gross example. Produced for a meager $2.7 million and promoted with a fur ther $4.5 million, the film so far has taken in more than $50 million. Producer Matty Simmons, chairman of the company that publishes the raucous monthly National Lam poon, expects revenues to top $80 million by year's end, not counting foreign distribution. That would place the film-among the top 15 movie earners of all time.

Simmons, who co-founded Diners' Club and published Weight Watchers Magazine before he launched National Lampoon, has three movies to go on his four-film-minimum contract with Universal Pictures. The bankroller and distributor of Animal House, Universal recouped its initial in vestment a few weeks after the film's opening. National Lampoon's cut of the gross -- 5% at first, but now and henceforth 17.5% -- translates into $3 million so far.

A major result of the film's success is the "toga party" craze that is sweeping campuses. House Star John Belushi's outrageous cries of "toga, toga" have struck a nerve in the fad-starved youth of contemporary Fraternity Row. For many, dressing up in a bed sheet is simply a means of venting the pressures of academia; for others, toga parties represent a search for something to be remembered by, even if that to ken of remembrance is borrowed from the '50s generation.

For the folks at Universal, the toga fad simply means more money in the bank. Hit with many requests for assistance from toga-party organizers, studio officials are supplying free records, T shirts and posters to further the craze. The payoff: long lines of ticket buyers--many repeat customers and some bedecked with togas--at moviehouses.

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