Weekend Box Office : Summer of ’95 Ahead of ’94 Pace

The early summer has been boffo at the box office, according to John Krier of Exhibitor Relations Co., a firm that tracks box-office results, but will the summer of 1995 be better than last summer, when movies grossed a record $2.2 billion?

In the past eight weeks, Krier notes, box-office revenues have been running 13% ahead of last summer’s figures, headed by such releases as “Batman Forever,” “Pocahontas,” “Congo” and “Apollo 13.” During that span, the box office has taken in an estimated $1.25 billion, compared to $1.1 billion in the same period last summer, when such hits as “Lion King,” “The Flintstones” and “Maverick” opened.

However, the mid-to-late summer weeks of 1994 brought out such huge hits as “Forrest Gump” and “True Lies.” Whether this year’s coming releases such as “Waterworld” can produce similar figures remains to be seen.

Weekend Gross/ Screens/ Weeks in Movie (Studio) Total (millions) Average Release 1. “Apollo 13” $19.6 2,200 2 (Universal) $65.6 $8,925 2. “Species” $17.2 2,310 1 (MGM) $17.2 $7,429 3. “First Knight” $10.9 2,161 1 (Columbia) $10.9 $5,024 4. “Pocahontas” $10.8 2,608 4 (Disney) $91.3 $4,127 5. “Batman Forever” $9.3 2,893 4 (Warner Bros.) $154.9 $3,201 6. “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” $5.9 2,409 2 (Fox) $25.5 $2,464 7. “Judge Dredd” $5.2 2,204 2 (Hollywood/Disney) $24.3 $2,374 8. “Bridges of Madison County” $2.9 1,558 6 (Warner Bros.) $60.3 $1,867 9. “Congo” $2.7 1,789 5 (Paramount) $73.1 $1,526 10. “Casper” $2.1 1,400 7 (Universal) $85.6 $1,505

SOURCE: Exhibitor Relations Co.