Business Notes MARKETING

"We have a bigger star than Sylvester Stallone," boasts Lawrence Gleason, marketing chief for De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, the movie-production company owned by Filmmaker Dino De Laurentiis. And who is that superluminary? "Greed," says Gleason. The base emotion has a starring role in the U.S. opening of De Laurentiis' $10 million flick, Million Dollar Mystery, which premieres June 12. Mystery is the first movie to offer its audience a shot at a $1 million prize for solving the film's lost-treasure puzzle.

In Mystery, Tom Bosley of Happy Days television fame discloses in his dying moments that he has buried $4 million somewhere around the U.S. At the film's end, only $3 million has been found. Filmgoers have until Dec. 31 to send in entry forms guessing the location where and the type of container in which the rest of the loot is stashed, basing their solutions on several clues in the movie and on the entry form. Winners will be announced in January after a random drawing from all entries with the correct answer.

Who are the big gainers from Mystery's mystery? The prizewinners, obviously -- and the De Laurentiis organization, which hopes to find a few extra million in box-office revenues among customers who take up the unusual challenge.