Weekend Box Office : Eastwood Still Tall in the Saddle

Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” won’t be riding into the sunset anytime soon. The Western held steady at the top of the national box office for the second weekend, dropping only 24% from its boffo opening. The thriller “Single White Female” opened to strong numbers, while the TV-themed comedy “Stay Tuned” with John Ritter had a fuzzy reception.

“Raising Cain” and “Whispers in the Dark,” both in only their second weekends, showed signs of bad word-of-mouth, as both movies saw grosses plunge about 45% from their first weekends.

Overall ticket sales were almost 20% ahead of the same weekend last summer, and helped position this summer’s box-office results slightly ahead of last year’s pace.

* “Diggstown,” the comedy starring James Woods and Louis Gossett Jr., opened slowly, grossing $1.5 million on 733 screens to land in 12th place.

Weekend Gross/ Screens/ Weeks in Movie (Studio) Total (millions) Average Release 1. “Unforgiven” $11.4 2,087 2 (Warner Bros.) $33.8 $5,450 2. “Single White Female” $10.2 1,744 1 (Columbia) $10.2 $5,856 3. “Death Becomes Her” $5.9 1,754 3 (Universal) $35.3 $3,365 4. “3 Ninjas” $4.6 1,954 2 (Touchstone) $14 $2,370 5. “A League of Their Own” $3.8 1,888 7 (Columbia) $89 $2,024 6. “Stay Tuned” $3.5 1,605 1 (Warner Bros.) $3.5 $2,201 7. “Raising Cain” $3.4 1,698 2 (Universal) $12.6 $2,010 8. “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid” $2.5 1,781 5 (Walt Disney) $49.1 $1,404 9. “Sister Act” $2.4 1,361 12 (Touchstone) $120.8 $1,795 10. “Mo’ Money” $2.3 1,410 4 (Columbia) $33.6 $1,639 * “Diggstown” $1.5 733 1 (MGM) $1.5 $2,052

SOURCE: Exhibitor Relations Co.