‘Beavis’ and Pal Have Last Chortle

Forget heartthrobs George Clooney and Tom Cruise. Audiences are swooning over Beavis and Butt-head. Yep. The devilish twits pulled in an estimated box-office mother lode of $20.5 million for the weekend--apparently beating Cruise’s record (set last week with “Jerry Maguire”) for the biggest December opening ever for a non-sequel.

Positive reviews, or maybe the lack of heavy-handed negative ones, helped buoy results for Paramount’s TV show adaptation “Beavis and Butt-head Do America,” which stole away much of the teen audience targeted by Warner Bros. for its “Mars Attacks!”

“Let’s face it,” Wayne Lewellen, Paramount’s head of distribution, said half-jokingly, “if you’re a teenager, it would have been socially unacceptable if you didn’t see this movie this weekend. You have to be able to talk about it.

“But seriously, I think this was the film for teens this weekend since ‘Space Jam’ and our own ‘Star Trek’ have been out there a while, and the same kids probably hit ‘Mars Attacks!’ last week.”

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While teens obviously were heading to theaters in droves, targeted audiences for a couple of other key films apparently stayed home or were swamped with Christmas shopping and events over the last pre-holiday weekend.

Indeed, studios disappointed with the numbers for several films were quick to note that holiday shopping had been cut short this year when the Thanksgiving holiday occurred so late, throwing the usual season off a week.

A good example: “One Fine Day.” Twentieth Century Fox had hoped female audiences would cool their heels in the malls and take a break for “ER” heartthrob Clooney’s new romantic comedy with Michelle Pfeiffer. But the numbers fell short of the $7 million anticipated, according to Fox’s head of distribution, Tom Sherak.

The film opened at an estimated $6.1 million, hovering around fifth place, reportedly sliding slightly behind another opener, “Scream,” which distributor Miramax said opened to about $6.3 million and placed fourth.

But Miramax rivals were disputing that estimate, calling it inflated and putting the number around $5.9 million instead. Firm results for all films will be released today.

Meanwhile, Sherak said he expects “One Fine Day” to really begin to build on Christmas Eve when the holiday chores end and adult audiences decide to take in the new movies.

Executives at Fox and Warner Bros.--which opened “My Fellow Americans” to tepid results--said they decided to release their films early to give them a jump-start in what will be a glutted marketplace Christmas Day.

Consider this laundry list of what is opening Wednesday (though mostly in a few cities, predominantly New York and Los Angeles): “Michael” (which opens nationwide), “William Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Kenneth Branagh Film,” “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” “I’m Not Rappaport,” “The Portrait of a Lady,” “Evita,” “The Evening Star” (on 1,200 screens nationwide), “Mother,” “Les Voleurs,” “Message to Love,” “Walkabout” and “Some Mother’s Son,” which opens in L.A. but adds cities Friday.

“My Fellow Americans,” which stars Jack Lemmon, James Garner and Dan Aykroyd, has been described as “Grumpy Old Presidents,” playing off Warners’ previous hit “Grumpy Old Men.” That film opened Christmas Day in 1993 to $3.8 million, but went on to become a huge hit.

“My Fellow Americans” opened to a paltry $2.8 million, placing ninth in the weekend survey of estimated box-office results.

“Jerry Maguire” was in second with an estimated $13.4 million; “101 Dalmatians” was third with $6.8 million; “The Preacher’s Wife” was sixth with $5.3 million; “Mars Attacks!” was seventh with $4.7 million; “Jingle All the Way” was eighth with $3 million, and “Daylight” was 10th with $2.3 million.

Rob Reiner’s “Ghosts of Mississippi” opened on 21 screens and brought in $175,000, about $8,333 per screen.