Filmgoers Snap Up Tickets to ‘Ninja Turtles’

Cowabunga !

Moviegoers shelled out an estimated $25 million at the weekend box office to see a quartet of heroic, man-size, pizza-eating, surf jargon-spouting “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

This puts New Line Cinema’s heroes on the half shell in auspicious company, giving them the third biggest three-day opening ever, after Warners’ “Batman” ($42.7 million) and Columbia’s “Ghostbusters II” ($29.4 million).

The PG-rated turtles weren’t the only ones snapping up business. Touchstone’s “Pretty Woman” had a second weekend that topped its first. And in the aftermath of their Oscar wins, business was up for both “Driving Miss Daisy” and “My Left Foot.”

A Pygmalionish romance about a corporate executive who turns a hooker into his fair lady, “Pretty Woman” sold some $13 million in tickets for the No. 2 spot and an increase of about 16% over the week before. The film, which widened from 1,325 to 1,538 screens, has grossed about $24 million.

In third place was Paramount’s stalwart submarine thriller, “The Hunt for Red October,” which commanded another $6.5 million in ticket sales for a total of $76.5 million.

Obviously fueled by its Oscars for best picture, best actress (Jessica Tandy) and best screenplay, “Driving Miss Daisy” was fourth, with receipts of approximately $5.3 million, a 46% increase over the week before. (The number of theaters at which it played widened by just a handful).

Miramax’s “My Left Foot,” which earned Oscars for best actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and best supporting actress (Brenda Fricker), had a gross of about $1.1 million for a 34% increase over the week before and a ninth-place ranking. The moving drama about the life of disabled artist Christy Brown has grossed about $10 million.

Elsewhere on the box office slate: Universal’s “Opportunity Knocks,” starring “Saturday Night Live’s” Dana Carvey, got off to an uneventful start with ticket sales of $3.5 million.

And despite its Oscar for best director (Oliver Stone), Universal’s “Born on the Fourth of July” dropped 27% over the previous weekend, for grosses of under $1 million.