Plus, Theaters Are Air-Conditioned

Summertime. A season when the mercury climbs to triple digits, kids are out of school and Hollywood studios release their big-budget thrill-ride movies featuring space aliens, rampaging monsters, screeching car chases and gunplay galore. So, it might seem a bit odd that DreamWorks SKG this Friday is releasing Steven Spielberg’s serious World War II combat movie “Saving Private Ryan.” The film, which stars Tom Hanks, Edward Burns and Matt Damon, tells the story of the D-day invasion of Normandy and how a group of soldiers went behind enemy lines to save a private whose three brothers were killed in combat. The film has already generated pre-Oscar buzz and is rated R, which will exclude a large portion of its potential audience. In the past, Spielberg usually has released his popcorn and sci-fi movies in the summer and his more serious fare like “The Color Purple,” “Empire of the Sun,” “Schindler’s List” and “Amistad” in the fall or at Christmas. Meanwhile, movies like “Jaws,” all three “Raiders of the Lost Ark” films, “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial” and both “Jurassic Park” movies have been released in the summer, although “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” made its debut in fall 1977. Still, is releasing “Saving Private Ryan” in July bad timing? Wouldn’t the fall or winter be better, when the weather turns gloomy and audiences--no longer occupied by vacation plans and getting a tan at the beach--are ready to tackle weighty movies? A spokesman for DreamWorks said the studio always was confident of its scheduling: “We did feel this was the perfect time to release the film. We never considered any other time of year. We believe it’s the right time to open after the early summer popcorn movies have had their day. And, mid- to late-July is still the prime moviegoing time of year.” There is precedent for releasing serious movies during summertime. In August 1992, for example, Warner Bros. released Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning western “Unforgiven.” Four years ago, the same studio released Oliver Stone’s controversial “Natural Born Killers.” In 1996, Miramax came out with “Trainspotting” and last year Orion released “Ulee’s Gold.”

ABC Closes Book (Again) on ‘Ellen’

Although ABC announced its cancellation more than two months ago, “Ellen” will finally breathe its last this Wednesday, when the network airs the controversial sitcom’s final original episode. ABC televised a one-hour finale in May, but two new episodes were left over. The network has said those installments were held back because the network hoped to boost ratings during the May sweeps, but the show’s producers charged ABC with being reluctant to air this week’s show because of its “heavy gay content,” featuring the character played by Ellen DeGeneres and her girlfriend debating the merits of gay marriage. (The episode will carry a parental-discretion advisory, another network maneuver that angered DeGeneres this season.) Several long-running comedies have quietly finished their network runs this summer, among them CBS’ “Cybill” and ABC’s “Family Matters.” “Ellen” appears to be no exception, scoring a record-low rating for the series last week. After all that’s been written about the program, its final shot at making headlines could come Thursday, when Emmy nominations are announced. The widely seen “coming out” episode won the 1997 Emmy Award for comedy writing.

Still Beastie After All These Years

It’s hardly unusual for a rap album to debut atop the pop album sales chart these days. It has happened more than a dozen times just in the last two years, but invariably by an act that has only been around for two or three years. The rap world has such a high turnover of stars that it’s hard for artists to even be on the scene for much longer than that. A true rarity would be a chart-entering No. 1 album by a rap-affiliated group that is still thriving more than a decade after its first release. And the Beastie Boys, who made history in 1986 when their “Licensed to Ill” was the first rap album to reach No. 1, are poised to do it. Their new album, “Hello Nasty,” is expected to enter atop the chart on Wednesday with perhaps the highest opening-week sales total this year. Retailers are predicting that first-week sales could top 500,000 copies. “I don’t know if it’s because of their attitude or what,” Bob Feterl, a regional manager for Tower Records, says of the rap ‘n’ rollers’ continuing popularity. “They’re fun and their videos are pretty offbeat and humorous. They don’t take themselves too seriously. I think that all contributes.” (The album’s first hit single, “Intergalactic,” is also getting video play.) In keeping with the fun theme, the New York trio will perform its North American tour, which kicks off July 31 in Seattle, on a rotating turntable-like stage. The tour reaches the Great Western Forum on Sept. 11.

--Compiled by Times staff writers and contributors