‘Apollo’ Flies High for Third Weekend : Box office: Space saga keeps the top spot, while ‘Nine Months’ vies with ‘Under Siege 2’ for second place.

“Apollo 13” became the first film this summer to hold onto the No. 1 box-office spot for more than two weeks in a row, leading the pack for the third successive weekend with an estimated $15.3 million on 2,302 screens despite three debuting films.

Ron Howard’s space drama will have grossed about $90.6 million by the end of its third weekend and, by the end of this week, is expected to become the fourth movie this year to pass $100 million. If it continues to hold this well, industry insiders say it could out-gross “Batman Forever.”

A bigger surprise, perhaps--or at least a testament to the value of publicity, good or bad--was the strong showing of 20th Century Fox’s romantic comedy “Nine Months” starring Hugh Grant. It debuted in second or third place, depending on final Sunday figures, with a better-than-expected estimated $12.1 million on 1,457 screens. The audience response apparently was enhanced by Grant’s recent Hollywood vice arrest and related fanfare.

*

Vying for second place was another new release, “Under Siege 2,” which Warner Bros. said was headed for a $13-million gross, but which competitors pegged at about $12 million, on 2,150 screens. Either way, it may be one action movie too many for this adventure-packed summer. Both new films posted encouraging per-screen averages, but “Nine Months” had the clear advantage with $8,270, versus “Siege’s” $5,500 to $6,500.

And according to Fox executive vice president Tom Sherak, exit polls on “Nine Months” indicate vigorous holdover potential if the film can manage to lure the slightly younger audience demographic. As for “Siege,” it will have to hold extremely well in order to approach its $60-million budget.

The third new film, the well-reviewed children’s tale “Indian in the Cupboard,” opened in sixth place with $7.8 million on 1,723 screens ($4,527 a screen). According to a Paramount spokeswoman, the debut, while not stratospheric, was comparable to the original “Free Willy,” which went on to enjoy a long run. More important, attendance for “Indian” went up significantly from Friday to Saturday and it was probably enjoying good Sunday matinee business.

“Indian” was outclassed by “Pocahontas” which did well with $8 million on 2,757 screens, taking fifth place. It has now grossed $106 million.

*

Fourth place was held by “Species,” which fell 42% to a still-potent $9.45 million on 2,310 screens. The 10-day total was just under $34 million, or a little more than its production cost.

In seventh, down a discouraging 38% was “First Knight,” with $6.7 million on 2,161 screens, for a disappointing $22.3 million in 10 days.

Rounding out the Top 10 were “Batman,” which dropped to $5.5 million after losing some engagements to “Siege” but has already banked $164 million. “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie” was in ninth place with a whopping 60% decline to $2.4 million on 2,042 screens and $30.5 million so far. In 10th was “Judge Dredd” with another dreadful drop to $2.1 million and only $29 million to date.

As predicted, the weekend fell behind the comparable weekend last year (somewhere between 10% and 13%) for the first time this summer. There were no films with the popularity of “Forrest Gump” or “True Lies” which each grossed in excess of $20 million at this time last year.