Weekend Box Office : ‘Batman’ No. 1; ‘Entry’s’ Strong Entry

Perhaps it was a pre-holiday lull, or the warnings to Southern Californians, who make up about 10% of the national moviegoing audience, to avoid non-essential travel after Sunday morning’s earthquakes. In any case, attendance for the weekend was down from last weekend. “Batman Returns” grossed an impressive $25.4 million in its second weekend and dwarfed the competition, but the cumulative total fell short of the $100-million mark reached by the original film during a similar period three years ago.

Twentieth Century Fox executives were ecstatic over the strong showing of “Unlawful Entry,” an unhyped genre movie that took in $10.7 million in its debut weekend and may have benefited from being the only new release. The picture, starring Ray Liotta as a less-than-trustworthy cop, may also be capitalizing on widespread interest in police abuse sparked by the Rodney G. King case.

The re-release of the animated feature “Pinocchio” was off to a slow start, but Disney officials say they expect audiences for the much-lauded picture to build gradually, as they did in 1984, when it was last released. The disappointing showing could also be a result of the fact that it was the first theatrical reissue after a video release. The studio’s “Sister Act” dropped to third place but only lost a fraction of the previous weekend’s audience.

Weekend Gross/ Screens/ Weeks in Movie (Studio) Total (millions) Average Release 1. “Batman Returns” $25.4 2,644 2 (Warner Bros.) $96.7 $9,616 2. “Unlawful Entry” $10.7 1,511 1 (Fox) $10.7 $6,663 3. “Sister Act” $7.2 2,087 5 (Touchstone) $67.3 $3,455 4. “Housesitter” $5.7 1,977 3 (Universal) $29.8 $2,860 5. “Patriot Games” $5.3 2,284 4 (Paramount) $58.1 $2,330 6. “Pinocchio” $3.1 1,907 1 (Buena Vista) $3.1 $1,649 7. “Lethal Weapon 3” $3.3 1,971 7 (Warner Bros.) $127.3 $1,657 8. “Far and Away” $2.5 1,668 6 (Universal) $46.4 $1,475 9. “Alien3” $1 1,185 6 (Fox) $51.3 $845 10. “Encino Man” $1.1 1,250 6 (Buena Vista) $34.6 $867

SOURCE: Exhibitor Relations Co.