Weekend Box Office : ‘Beauty’ Set to Surpass ‘Mermaid’

Walt Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” is poised to surpass the all-time record gross for an animated film in first-run, and Paramount Pictures’ “The Addams Family” is due to cross the magical $100-million mark this week. With $82.5 million collected in its first eight weeks, Disney’s animated musical fairy-tale in the next day or so should pass the record set in early 1990 by “The Little Mermaid,” which collected $84.3 million in its full run of about 31 weeks. Paramount’s “Addams Family” this week will become the first movie since last summer’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” to gross more than $100 million.

“The Addams Family” was the movie that gave the just-ended holiday season a kick-start when it debuted in mid-November. The season ended this past weekend with TriStar Pictures’ release of Steven Spielberg’s “Hook” in first place, grossing $82 million so far in its fourth week of release.

Weekend Gross/ Screens/ Weeks in Movie (Studio) Total (millions) Average Release 1. “Hook” $11.5 2,254 4 (TriStar) $82 $5,090 2. “Father of the Bride” $9 1,588 3 (Touchstone) $43.2 $5,679 3. “Beauty and the Beast” $8.8 1,940 8 (Walt Disney) $82.5 $4,539 4. “The Prince of Tides” $8.5 1,412 2 (Columbia) $31.3 $6,024 5. “The Last Boy Scout” $7.1 1,823 4 (Warner Bros.) $43.8 $3,885 6. “JFK” $6.8 1,164 3 (Warner Bros.) $30.8 $5,862 7. “Bugsy” $5.4 1,245 4 (TriStar) $25.3 $4,310 8. “Star Trek VI” $4.7 2,147 5 (Paramount) $60.5 $2,180 9. “The Addams Family” 4.6 1,974 7 (Paramount) $98.4 $2,321 10. “My Girl” $3.8 1,690 6 (Columbia) $48.7 $2,253 * “Fried Green Tomatoes” $197,000 9 2 (Universal) $465,000 $21,875

* “Fried Green Tomatoes,” starring Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy, continues to pace the smaller releases in the marketplace. The film increased its number of screens by four, but continued to show a very strong per-screen average gross. Lawrence Kasdan’s “Grand Canyon” mined a massive $72,000 on two screens.

SOURCE: Exhibitor Relations Co.