WHEN OPIE SPEAKS, PEOPLE LISTEN

Tri-Star will be paying Ron Howard $5 million to direct two movies--plus profit shares.

The fat figure surfaced when we looked into Howard’s and producer Brian Grazer’s Imagine Films Entertainment, which goes public in mid-July. The offering: 1,667,000 units at $7 per. According to the Allen and Co. preliminary prospectus, Howard and Grazer will retain 63% of the common stock.

“We’ve sent out 15,000 prospectuses,” said an Allen spokeswoman, “and we’re getting a couple hundred callers a day inquiring about the ‘Opie’ and ‘Richie Cunningham’ stock.”