‘Weapon’ Fires an Awesome Salvo at the Box Office

The action thriller “Lethal Weapon 3” collected an enormous $33.4 million at the nation’s theaters during the weekend, making it the second-biggest non-holiday opening in recent Hollywood history.

Only “Batman” in June, 1989, opened to bigger numbers--$42 million--for its initial Friday-Saturday-Sunday dates.

The news for the rest of the movie business over the weekend, however, was not cheerful, according to industry estimates. Early figures indicate that “LW3” may have accounted for as much as 70% of the entire box office, leaving the rest of the field with crumbs.

The second-highest-grossing picture of the week was the long-running sexual drama “Basic Instinct,” which only grossed about $2.9 million, down from $4 million the weekend before.

As news of the huge success of the Warner Bros.-distributed “Lethal Weapon 3” spread through Hollywood, it triggered hopes among industry executives and theater owners for a summer season box-office resurgence after a sluggish spring. The summer season rolls in force Friday with the Memorial Day weekend openings of “Far and Away,” “Alien 3” and “Encino Man.”

While “Lethal Weapon 3” received mixed reviews, it was widely perceived in the film industry as being “critic proof,” with its audience-pleasing combination of stars and action, plus the track record of its two antecedents. The movie stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover as a pair of daredevil Los Angeles police detectives and Joe Pesci as a bumbling hanger-on. The story takes them through massive car chases and building explosions, as they try to track down the thieves of illegal firearms stolen from police headquarters.

“We knew we had a successful picture on our hands. But after the urban violence of the last few weeks, we got a little nervous that the moviegoer might be afraid of coming to the theater,” said Barry Reardon, Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution, on Sunday. “We never thought we’d see numbers this big.”

Reardon said the “LW3” results “portend excellent summer box-office results for the whole industry,” noting the number of major films due, plus Warner Bros.’ own “Batman Returns,” opening June 19.

The size of the “LW3” opening impressed even John Krier, owner of Exhibitor Relations Co., which is in the business of tracking box-office data.

Krier noted that last summer’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, grossed $52.3 million during the five-day Fourth of July weekend, always a major weekend for moviegoing. But Krier noted that “LW3,” on a non-holiday, non-summer weekend, even surpassed “T2’s” first Friday-Saturday-Sunday grosses, $33.4 million to $31.7 million.

Other big openers, such as the first and second “Indiana Jones” sequels, premiered with $33.9 million and $37 million, respectively, but on long, Memorial Day weekends.

The first “Lethal Weapon” opened in 1987 in March with a $6.8-million weekend and ended up grossing $65 million in North America. The second opened just after July 4, 1989, with a $20.4-million weekend and went on to gross $147.3 million in North America.

Warner Bros. was not saying exactly how many screens “LW3” was playing on, but Reardon said it is booked in 2,510 theaters, many of which are multiplexes. Even if the number of screens is 3,000, the end result, however, is still an exceedingly high per-screen average for a movie in wide release.

In other results for the just-ended weekend, the comedy “Beethoven” did only an estimated $2.2 million for the No. 3 spot, while “White Men Can’t Jump” sold a slow $2 million, and “The Player” slipped to about $1.5 million.