Family-Friendly ‘Casper’ Keeps Hold on Audiences : Movies: Comedy finishes weekend No. 1 at box office again while romantic ‘Bridges’ opens at No. 2.

With Hollywood studios now rolling out their big summer movies, the season’s early surprise has been “Casper,” a family film from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment that finished in first place at the box office over the weekend for the second consecutive week.

The Universal Pictures release took in an estimated $14.1 million in ticket sales between Friday and Sunday, bringing its two-week total to $39.6 million.

“The Bridges of Madison County,” a slower-paced romantic drama starring Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep, opened to a respectable $10.8 million for second place.

A string of holdover big-budget action pictures continued doing brisk business. Bruce Willis in “Die Hard With a Vengeance” garnered an estimated $9.2 million, Mel Gibson in “Braveheart” grossed an estimated $7.5 million, and Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman in “Crimson Tide” had an estimated $6.5 million in weekend ticket sales.

Hollywood observers say that, given the surprising staying power of “Casper” (it dropped only 16% compared to the same three-day period a weekend earlier), the ghostly comedy based on a popular cartoon could reach $100 million to $120 million in box office by the time its domestic release is over.

“Before it opened, the tracking numbers were not that good,” said one industry source. “That was mainly because tracking young kids is very tough. It’s hard to get a handle on them.”

Some credited “Casper’s” success to the fact that there aren’t that many family-oriented pictures in the marketplace.

“It’s the big family picture,” said John Krier, president of Exhibitor Relations Co., a firm that tracks box-office and motion-picture information.

Others noted that Spielberg’s Amblin label has strong, positive identification with family movies among audiences.

By comparison, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer this weekend released “Fluke,” a family movie about a man who dies and is reincarnated as a dog, but the movie opened to a disappointing $1.5 million.

While the opening weekend for “Bridges of Madison County” was not blockbuster, industry observers noted that the film, based on the popular book, is targeted toward an older audience that normally doesn’t flock to a movie in its opening week.

“These are people who are not subject to impulse buying like young kids are,” said one observer. “Over a long time, this movie should take in between $70 million and $80 million. Warner Bros. has to be pleased. I think there was some concern [over how well it would perform] before hearing this number.”

Krier noted that romantic comedies and dramas often open slowly and then build. The 1993 hit “Sleepless in Seattle” took in $17.4 million on its opening weekend before going on to gross $126.5 million. Similarly, the 1990 film “Ghost” opened to only $12.1 million and went on to gross $217.6 million.

“These romantic pictures usually don’t open up with a bang,” Krier said. “ ‘While You Were Sleeping’ started at $9.2 million and now it’s up to $62 million.”

Rounding out the weekend’s top 10 films were: “Forget Paris,” $3.7 million; “Johnny Mnemonic,” $3.3 million; “While You Were Sleeping,” $3.3 million; “Mad Love,” $2.4 million; and “Tales From the Hood,” $1.96 million.