BIZWATCH

By JOHN GREENWALD; VALERIE JOHANNA MARCHANT; KIM MASTERS; JOSEPH R. SZCZESNY

LOOKS LIKE A LAVA LAMP, GROSSES OUT ADULTS

Today's teenagers have fallen in love with lava lamps, those kitschy 1960s artifacts that featured floating lumps. So it's not surprising that the Clearly Canadian company has launched a line of soft drinks that bring the lamps to mind. The noncarbonated fruit-flavored beverages, called Orbitz, contain brightly colored jelly balls that can be sipped through a straw. Grossing out grownups is part of the plan. "If we are making 40-year-olds uncomfortable," says marketing director Jonathan Cronin, "we are probably making a teen very happy."

Clearly Canadian, based in British Columbia, could use some cheer itself. A pioneer in the clear beverage craze of the early 1990s, CC saw its sales go flat when diet-conscious consumers found that its natural-looking soft drinks still had plenty of calories. Orbitz, launched last May, has so far landed in the U.S. on the East and West coasts. The company intends to ship nearly 1 million cases (price: $1.29 a bottle) in its first year, some four times more than originally planned. A lot of adults must be nauseated.

SONY SEEKS A SAVIOR

Box-office fizzles in 1996 (figures in millions)*

Budget Domestic Gross

The Cable Guy $47 $60 Matilda $42-50 $32 Striptease $40 $32 Multiplicity $40-50 $20 The Fan $55 $18

Can anyone breathe life into Sony Corp.'s supine movie studios? After serial firings and flashy flops like last summer's The Cable Guy, Sony called in a new rescue team last week. The Japanese electronics giant hired United Artists' president John Calley as president and chief operating officer of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which includes the Columbia and TriStar studios, and reassigned executive Jeff Sagansky to be Calley's co-president. For the first time, a Japanese will join the studios' management team: Masayuki Nozoe, a Sony executive with a marketing background, will become executive vice president of the entertainment division.

The well-regarded Calley, 66, succeeds Alan Levine, who was forced out two weeks ago. Besides releasing hits such as Birdcage and Goldeneye at UA, Calley gussied it up, along with sister MGM, for sale to financier Kirk Kerkorian. That sparked speculation that Sony may want Calley to sell or find a partner for its own studios.

* The estimated budget figures do not include multimillion-dollar marketing costs. Film companies typically keep one-half of the domestic gross and get additional revenue from sources like cable and video distribution

Sources: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, Variety

GM RUNS OFF THE ROAD IN CANADA

Fall is normally new-car season in Detroit. But an outbreak of labor strife at General Motors' plants in Canada has cast into doubt the rollout of GM's all-new Chevrolet minivan and other 1997 models. All production was halted in Canada last week after 28,500 members of the Canadian Auto Workers union walked out in a strike that has deprived some U.S. plants of vital parts. Without a settlement, analysts say, the company may have to close its 24 U.S. parts-and-assembly plants by the end of the month.

The confrontation in Canada is particularly awkward because GM remains deadlocked in contract talks with the 220,000-member United Auto Workers union in the U.S. GM fears that granting Canadian demands to limit the number of parts that the company can buy from outside suppliers could weaken its hand in the U.A.W. talks. But a display of hard-nosed GM resolve in both countries could prompt a U.A.W. walkout and delay the 1997 cars and trucks.

MCSHAKE-UP AT MCDONALD'S

To help beef up its sagging U.S. sales, McDonald's last spring unwrapped a new line of hamburgers called Arch Deluxe with a supposedly grownup taste. When business continued to weaken, McDonald's last week cooked up a management shake-up. The company named vice chairman Jack Greenberg, 54, to the new post of chairman of McDonald's USA, where he will oversee Edward Rensi, 52, who has headed U.S. operations. The switch came as McDonald's, which holds about a 40% share of the $38 billion U.S. burger-flipping market, has watched its sales fall at restaurants open for more than a year, while business at archrivals Wendy's and Burger King has risen. McDonald's obviously wants tastier results from Greenberg.