MOVIES - Feb. 2, 1988

The latest popularity survey--measuring an actor’s “star power” as voted on by American movie theater operators--is hardly a raw deal for comedian Eddie Murphy. The star of 1987’s “Beverly Hills Cop II” and “Raw” was voted the nations’s biggest box office draw in the latest survey, released Sunday. The exhibitor poll is conducted annually by Quigley Publications. Trailing Murphy for 1987 was “Wall Street” baddie Michael Douglas, followed by Michael J. Fox, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Paul Hogan, Tom Cruise (1986’s top draw), Glenn Close, Sylvester Stallone, Cher and Mel Gibson. The survey asked movie theater executives to select 10 people whose names on the marquee draw customers in the largest numbers.