‘Instinct’ Sizzles at the Box Office : Movies: Controversial sexual murder thriller takes in $15 million despite protests.

The controversial movie “Basic Instinct,” a sexual murder thriller about ice-pick slayings, jumped to the top of the national box-office standings in its debut weekend despite--or perhaps aided by--well-publicized protests.

The film’s financially troubled producer, Carolco Pictures, and its distributor, TriStar Pictures, boasted a sizzling box-office tally of $15 million in tickets sold for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That estimated figure from industry sources put it well ahead of second-place “Wayne’s World,” which drew an estimated $7.8 million. That’s down from the $18 million it drew when it opened on a holiday weekend, Feb. 14-17.

Nevertheless, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) declared that it was satisfied with the response its actions in front of Westwood’s Coronet Theater, and several movie theaters around the nation, had generated. The group has called the film’s depiction of bisexual women “gratuitously defamatory.”

GLAAD Los Angeles Executive Director Chris Fowler said that the media watchdog group handed out 1,000 flyers in Westwood and that its actions drew widespread press attention.

A different kind of satisfaction was expressed Sunday by the film’s writer, Joe Eszterhas, who had feuded for a year with director Paul Verhoeven over creative differences. Eszterhas said he was so delighted when he saw the film in a Marin County theater that he called Verhoeven and sent him champagne.

Representatives of the more radical groups taking part in the protests, Queer Nation and another group whose name gives away the ending of “Basic Instinct’s” killer, also said they were pleased with the weekend’s developments. They said they had made their point.

“The success of the movie wasn’t unexpected,” said Judy Sisneros of Queer Nation. “All this publicity about the movie’s ratings and the queer community’s issues helped to generate interest. But that was a trade-off we had to accept in order to make our point.”

The more important issue, Sisneros said, is the film industry’s portrayal of gays and lesbians. “When Hollywood sends out negative images, it sends a message that we’re not equal, that it’s OK to bash us.

“The fact is, we’re fighting for our lives. I don’t feel we’ve been left any choice.”

Her comments reflected the emotions of many in the homosexual community who point with alarm to rising hate crimes nationally. On Thursday, the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission reported that for the seventh consecutive year hate crimes had reached record levels and that gay men were the most frequent victims of violent assaults.

“Basic Instinct” stars Michael Douglas as a hard-drinking, psychologically unstable detective who falls in love with the prime suspect in an ice-pick murder. The suspect, played by Sharon Stone, is a bisexual female novelist, whose female lover is presented as a violent, shadowy figure.

In an interview over the weekend, Eszterhas said he saw the movie for the first time on Friday and “was blown away by it.” He said the film’s bisexual characters are “presented in good taste . . . the picture is not homophobic.”

But that opinion differed from a year ago, when the movie was being shot in San Francisco and gay and lesbian protesters sought to force script changes by disrupting the filming. At that time, Eszterhas conceded to the protesters that the script contained “certain insensitivities.”

He then proposed changes to a number of scenes and to all of the central characters, as well as the use of a disclaimer to remind viewers the movie is fiction.

But the suggestions were refused by Verhoeven, a director noted for his explicitly sexual and violent screen images in such works as “Total Recall,” “The Fourth Man” and “Robocop.”

The result of the differences was that Eszterhas did not speak with anyone connected with the movie for almost a year, and he was not invited to view it.

Eszterhas, who was paid $3 million for the script, said he took his wife and children, ages 17 and 15, and a few friends to see the movie when it opened Friday. They paid for their tickets.

Eszterhas said the script he saw on the screen was, “99% mine . . . I’m happy he (Verhoeven) had the wisdom to turn down my suggestions.”

Eszterhas described the general points about the film industry made by protesters as, “valid.” But, he said, “ ‘Basic Instinct’ is not the movie to focus on . . . even most film critics have pointed out it isn’t homophobic.”

But the debate on Hollywood’s attitudes that “Basic Instinct” has spurred, no doubt, will continue. Even though protest actions against the film subsided by Saturday night, Queer Nation and others said they plan protests at next Monday’s Academy Awards.

Queer Nation’s Sisneros said the group wants to draw attention to best picture nominees, “JFK” and “The Silence of the Lambs,” which it believes contain stereotypical gay characters. And they want to point out that none of the major film studios have made a film addressing the AIDS epidemic.