‘Ghost’ Materializes as No. 1 at the Box Office

With ticket sales of $12.5 million, Paramount Pictures’ romantic fantasy “Ghost”--starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg--materialized as the No. 1 picture at the nation’s box office over the weekend.

What makes “Ghost’s” performance especially spirited is its per-screen-average of $8,945 on 1,400 screens. By comparison, the Walt Disney Studio’s highly touted spider thriller “Arachnophobia” opened with a per-screen average of about $5,409 on 1,479 screens, for about $8 million and third place.

Sandwiched in-between the two: 20th Century Fox’s “Die Hard 2,” which earned about $9.7 million--for total receipts of more than $70 million.

Orion Pictures’ “Navy SEALS,” starring Charlie Sheen and Michael Biehn as members of the Navy’s elite fighting squadron, opened with ticket sales of about $6 million, for fourth place.

In fifth was Disney’s animated musical adventure “The Jungle Book.” With second week ticket sales of about $5.9 million--a hefty figure, considering the film’s audience is largely made up of small fry (who pay children’s ticket prices)--the 1967 film has now earned more than $15 million in its latest reissue.

Tri-Star Pictures’ “The Freshman,” starring Marlon Brando in a parody of his “Godfather” role, opened at only six theaters in Los Angeles and New York. But receipts of $205,876--that’s an average of $34,313 per screen--would seem to bode well for its wider opening on Friday.

Elsewhere, the sixth- through 10th-place pictures--with figures in estimates--were:

“Days of Thunder” (Paramount), sixth place with $5.5 million; “Quick Change” (Warner Bros.), seventh with $3.4 million; “Dick Tracy” (Walt Disney Studios), eighth with $3 million; “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane” (Fox), ninth with $2.9 million, and “Total Recall” (Tri-Star), 10th with $2 million.