Weekend Box Office : Baseball Film in a League of Its Own

Moviegoing took a dive on the Easter Sunday weekend and only one of the five new films attracted good, if not booming, business. That was “Major League II,” from Warner Bros., starring Charlie Sheen. Opening to sluggish response were “Clifford,” in seventh place, and “Thumbelina,” in eighth. The other two debuting films didn’t make the Top 10: The star-laden “The House of the Spirits” grossed $1.7 million and ranked 11th, and “Jimmy Hollywood,” a film by Barry Levinson, took in only $1.5 million for 14th place.

* Foreign-language film Oscar winner “Belle Epoque” from Spain is entering its own beautiful box-office era. The movie did a big $21,581 alone at the Royal Theatre on Los Angeles’ Westside.

Weekend Gross/ Screens/ Weeks in Movie (Studio) Total (millions) Average Release 1. “Major League II” $7 2,167 1 (Warner Bros.) $9.7 $3,249 2. “D2--The Mighty Ducks” $6.3 2,215 2 (Walt Disney) $21.9 $2,834 3. “The Paper” $5.6 1,544 2 (Universal) $15.6 $3,650 4. “Naked Gun 33 1/3” $5.3 2,383 3 (Paramount) $33.4 $2,237 5. “Schindler’s List” $3.8 1,382 16 (Universal) $74.7 $2,750 6. “Above the Rim” $2.7 863 2 (New Line) $8.7 $3,151 7. “Clifford” $2.5 1,014 1 (Orion) $2.5 $2,536 8. “Thumbelina” $2.3 1,502 1 (Warner Bros.) $3.1 $1,544 9. “Four Weddings ... “ $2 240 4 (Gramercy) $3.86 $8,482 10. “Guarding Tess” $1.8 1,445 4 (TriStar) $22 $1,264 * “Belle Epoque” $311,194 550 6 (Sony Classics) $1.3 $5,460

SOURCE: Exhibitor Relations Co.