A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : HOLY COW! : Money, Money, Money, Money

In most cases, by the time a successful movie is released in home video, its theatrical run is long over. But not so in the case of “Home Alone.”

More than 8 million copies of the surprise blockbuster, which opened back in November, are going to hit the video stores on Aug. 22. Yet it’s still drawing people at just under 300 theaters nationwide. Now in its 37th week of release, the picture surpassed the $280-million mark last weekend, qualifying it as filmdom’s top-grossing comedy and the No. 3 movie (after “E.T.” and “Star Wars”) of all time. Abroad, the picture has also done well, bringing an additional $165 million into the 20th Century Fox coffers.

While its $852-per-screen weekend average may not sound impressive, it was good enough for “Home Alone” to edge out recent summer issues such as “Soapdish” and “Dutch”--another Fox vehicle that dropped 64% in its second weekend out.

“Home Alone” isn’t the only old-timer holding its own, however. Orion’s “Dances With Wolves,” still playing on 387 screens in its 38th week, added almost $860,000 to its cumulative gross of $181 million, while the studio’s “The Silence of the Lambs” added $545,000 in its 23rd week for a $128-million total.

These films benefited, no doubt, from what everyone agrees is a rather lackluster summer season. Two movies have broken the $100-million mark: Warner Bros.’ “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” ($128 million despite critical pans) and Tri-Star’s “Terminator 2” (at $134 million the highest-grossing film of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career). And, with $98 million racked up, “City Slickers” is coming close.

Still, pickings for adults--an audience which always seems to go wanting during the summertime--are relatively slim. Though Disney’s “The Doctor” opened very well in limited release, it must overcome downbeat subject matter (a doctor diagnosed with blood cancer) as Fox’s “Dying Young” could not. Paramount’s “Regarding Henry” ($24 million after two weeks of release) has been another disappointment, especially since the combined salaries of director Mike Nichols and star Harrison Ford approach $9 million.

That the summer’s biggest box-office surprise (almost $31 million) is Columbia’s “Boyz N The Hood”--a low-budget L.A. street gang drama directed by an unknown 23-year-old--further confounds an industry in search of barometers.

“Hollywood likes guidelines,” notes one industry observer. “And there are none this summer. It’s not like the ‘small’ movies are working . . . or that all the ‘big star’ vehicles are doing well. Without hints about what direction we should be moving, it’s harder for projects to get a green light. We seem to be floundering a bit, almost gun-shy. It takes a little more courage to fire shots in the dark and hope against hope that you hit something.”