Weekend Box Office : 3 New Films Open Quietly

The new entries--”Clockers,” “Hackers” and “Angus”--had fairly soft openings in what is traditionally one of the flatter moviegoing periods of the year. “With football, the start of the TV season and children returning to school, a movie has to be a pretty big attraction to pull them in,” said John Krier, head of Exhibitor Relations. “Things should start picking up this weekend with the opening of two powerful pictures: ‘Seven’ and ‘Showgirls.’ ”

Universal Pictures landed the two top spots on the heels of its best summer ever. Paramount’s “Braveheart”--re-released after a three-week hiatus--turned in respectable numbers. And Disney’s “Dangerous Minds” held strong. Independent product made significant inroads with “Gramercy’s “The Usual Suspects,” New Line’s “Mortal Kombat” and “Angus” surfacing in the top 10.

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Weekend Gross/ Screens/ Weeks in Movie (Studio) Total (millions) Average Release 1. “To Wong Foo....” $6.5 1,448 2 (Universal) $18.0 $4,520 2. “Clockers” $4.5 1,208 1 (Universal) $5.4 $3,695 3. “Dangerous Minds” $3.45 1,588 6 (Disney/Hollywood) $67.4 $2,170 4. “Hackers” $3.2 1,812 1 (MGM) $3.2 $1,751 5. “The Usual Suspects” $3.0 874 5 (Gramercy) $12.4 $3,452 6. “Braveheart” (re-release) * $2.3 1,700 1 (Paramount) $62.5 $1,367 7. “Mortal Kombat” $2.3 2,077 5 (New Line) $63.3 $1,089 8. “Angus” $1.92 1,154 1 (New Line) $1.9 $1,660 9. “Babe” $1.86 1,635 7 (Universal) $48.1 $1,135 10. “A Walk in the Clouds” $1.7 1,434 6 (Fox) $44.4 $1,201 * “Unstrung Heroes” $185,183 10 1 (Disney/Hollywood) $185,183 $18,518

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*Box-office total includes initial 13-week release

* “Unstrung Heroes,” Diane Keaton’s feature film debut, got off to an encouraging start, turning in an impressive $18 thousand-plus per screen average at 10 theaters.

SOURCE: Exhibitor Relations Co.