‘Titanic’ Tide Keeps Rising; ‘Good Will Hunting’ Bags 2nd

“Titanic” was at the head of Hollywood’s regatta for a fifth week with another $29.5 million in ticket sales, industry sources estimated Sunday.

The movie, which won four Golden Globes on Sunday night, grossed 2% more than the previous week and well over the $28.6 million that it grossed during its debut weekend.

“It’s enormous. It’s fantastic. It’s a phenomenon,” said Rob Friedman, vice chairman of Paramount’s Motion Picture Group, which released the film in collaboration with 20th Century Fox. “It’s doing better than everyone thought it would. It’s in the outer reaches where it’s beyond predictability.”

Director-writer James Cameron’s sinking-ship epic is that much closer to recouping its $200-million budget despite a running time of more than three hours that limits screenings. So far, it has grossed an estimated $235.8 million at the North American box office. That does not mean the film is in the black, though, considering the cost of advertising and distribution and the fact that the gross is shared by the studios and theater operators.

In second place with $11 million was “Good Will Hunting,” a drama featuring Matt Damon as a soul-searching young genius and Robin Williams as his therapist. The Miramax Films picture, directed by Gus Van Sant, was in its second weekend of wide release.

Three new films made the Top 10.

Warner Bros.’ “Fallen,” starring Denzel Washington as a cop tracking a demon who transfers from person to person by touch, opened in third place with $9.2 million.

Sony/TriStar Pictures’ comedy “As Good as It Gets,” which won three Golden Globes, finished fourth with $8.3 million in its fourth week of release.

Paramount’s “Hard Rain,” a flood thriller starring Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater, opened in fifth with a gross of $7.2 million. Universal Pictures’ ‘70s-style comedy “Half Baked” grossed $6.8 million for sixth place in its opening weekend.

New Line Cinema’s “Wag the Dog,” the critically lauded satire from director Barry Levinson, followed in seventh with $6.2 million, and MGM/United Artists’ “Tomorrow Never Dies,” the latest James Bond picture, was No. 8, adding another $5.5 million to its cumulative gross of $111 million.

The movie, starring Pierce Brosnan, is now the most successful of the Bond films in the North American market. The previous record was set by “GoldenEye,” also starring Brosnan, which took in $106.1 million in 1995.

“It took ‘GoldenEye’ 16 weeks to reach that,” said Larry Gleason, MGM’s distribution president. “We broke the record . . . in five weeks.”

The movie has benefited from a $100-million promotional campaign conducted by BMW and other partners.

The remaining films in the Top 10 were both from DreamWorks Pictures: “Mouse Hunt,” in ninth, with a gross of $4.3 million, and Stephen Spielberg’s “Amistad,” with $2.7 million.

All weekend results are estimates. Final figures are to be released today.