‘Forrest Gump’ Off to Fast Start at Box Office

Tom Hanks’ character Forrest Gump may not be the brightest of fellows, but the movie “Forrest Gump” looks to be the brightest hit in the market this week, based on a remarkable Wednesday opening estimated box-office gross of $4 million.

The dollar amount represented 26% of all movie business on Wednesday, with the romantic comedy showing broad appeal in all markets, whether upscale or blue collar, urban or suburban, according to sources.

If “Gump’s” apparent appeal holds, some analysts not associated with the Paramount Pictures release are predicting a Friday-Sunday gross topping $20 million. That would make “Gump” the third highest summer opening weekend, behind only $40.9 million for “The Lion King” and $37.2 million for “The Flintstones.” Such other summer hits as “Wolf,” “Speed,” “Maverick” and “The Shadow” each had opening weekend business that was less than $18 million. “Gump” is also the only major release opening this week.

“The phenomenal thing about the gross is that the film did one-quarter of all the business in North America for Wednesday in one of the most congested marketplaces anyone can remember,” said Barry London, Paramount’s president of worldwide distribution.

London said Wednesday’s $4 million was achieved with 1,332 prints in the market and despite a running time of 2 hours and 20 minutes, which reduces the number of daily showings from five to four. On Friday, London said Paramount will boost the number of prints to about 1,600.

The film was considered a “tough sell” because of the central character’s quirkiness. London said the studio got around that by using a number of different approaches, including extensive TV pitches and a print campaign that plays up the popular Hanks, for whom this is the first film since his Oscar-winning role in the AIDS drama “Philadelphia.” The simple campaign said “Hanks. Gump. July 6.” Last summer, Hanks starred in the hit comedy “Sleepless in Seattle.”

In the film, written by Eric Roth who adapted from the novel by Winston Groom, Hanks plays a simpleton with winning generosity and optimism. Robert Zemeckis directed.