Studios Get Top Mileage Out of Hanks

This town is apparently big enough for two Tom Hankses. Nonetheless, there was a shootout for No. 1 over the weekend between Hanks as a toy cowboy and Hanks as a prison guard. In what was otherwise another sleepy pre-Christmas weekend, the only real fireworks were over bragging rights as to who dominated the charts, the previous champ “Toy Story 2” or its new challenger, “The Green Mile.”

Though Disney and competing studios had “Toy Story 2” in front, Warner Bros. estimated an ambitiously high Sunday total based on strong exit polls from Friday and Saturday, giving “The Green Mile” a three-day total of $18.6 million in 2,875 theaters. The competition had the film in the mid-$17-million range or a little higher. Still, even if the calculations are a little rosy, “Mile” opened in the same general range as other previous hits that debuted in past years on this quiet weekend--like “Jerry Maguire” and “You’ve Got Mail,” both of which surpassed $100 million.

Because the Warners total was reportedly a bit high, competitors say, Disney nosed “Toy Story 2” into first with a third-weekend estimate of $18.7 million. Since the kiddies are the only truly available audience right now, “Story’s” mighty matinees kept turnstiles turning on Saturday and Sunday on 3,257 screens. Even if the estimate turns out to be a little high, “Toy Story 2” has just glided to $140 million without stopping to catch its breath. By next week it will be the ninth release of the year (an unprecedented number) to surpass $150 million, and, by year’s end, the fourth film of 1999 to top the $200-million mark--the others being “Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace,” “The Sixth Sense” and the “Austin Powers” sequel.

Teens and young males sought out “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” starring “Saturday Night Live” alumnus Rob Schneider (83% of the audience was aged 13 to 34). On 2,151 screens, the modestly budgeted comedy scored an estimated $13 million and should have the laugh-friendly audience pretty much to itself until the arrival of Tim Allen in “Galaxy Quest” at Christmas.

Among the exclusive runs, both “The Cider House Rules” and “The Cradle Will Rock” got off to good starts in major cities. The former, John Irving’s adaptation of his own book, captured $115,000 on only eight screens and will go slightly wider on Christmas Day, which is when Tim Robbins’ period comedy-drama also expands. “Cradle’s” first weekend in nine theaters was a respectable $94,000.

The one-week Academy qualifying engagement for “Diamonds,” starring Kirk Douglas, was a pale $7,500 on two screens. And Mike Figgis’ rendering of Strindberg’s “Miss Julie” fared even worse, with only $7,000 in three theaters. Doing best among the limited runs is “The End of the Affair,” Neil Jordan’s film version of Graham Greene’s romantic drama. Its second weekend on seven screens brought $117,000 and a splendid 10-day total of almost $400,000.

“Liberty Heights” rounded out its first month with more than $725,000 as its fourth weekend brought $290,000 on just 42 screens. “Boys Don’t Cry,” which should get a boost from the Los Angeles Film Critics awards (Hilary Swank won best actress, and Chloe Sevigny best supporting actress), took in another $88,000 on 32 screens for $2.2 million so far. “The Straight Story” grossed $156,000 on 140 screens for a total of $3.6 million.

Since this is the nadir of the film-going year--things start to pick up next weekend--most of the older films in theaters suffered substantial drops over the weekend, especially since they were competing with two new strong arrivals. “The World Is Not Enough” should become the 17th film of 1999 to pass $100 million, either today or Tuesday. Its fourth-weekend total was an estimated $6.2 million on 3,063 screens. “End of Days” lost almost half of its business from last weekend, dropping to about $4.7 million in 2,665 theaters for a three-week total of more than $53 million. “Sleepy Hollow” experienced a similar drop to approximately $4.6 million in 3,065 theaters and a four-week total of $81 million, with $100 million still in its sights by the start of the new millennium.

“The Bone Collector” is fading away, but managed another $1.7 million or so in its sixth weekend, taking it over the $60-million mark on 2,020 screens. “Dogma” is also largely played out, taking in an additional $1.2 million in its fifth weekend in 1,159 theaters for a strong $26.4 million to date. “Being John Malkovich,” in its limited exposure on 630 screens, added another $957,000 over the weekend, bringing its total above $15 million.