Memorial Day Weekend Box Office : Crowded Field Splits $88-Million Gross

The Friday through Monday Memorial Day weekend produced grosses that gave the film industry a solid, if not rousing start for the summer season. No records were set, as a crowded field of films split the business many ways. The money-makers even included Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning “Unforgiven,� which played in 955 low-priced houses and pulled in $1.4 million--10 months after its initial release. (Its total gross to date is $97.2 million.)

Final figures released on Tuesday by the studios put the weekend total at $88 million in tickets sold for all movies grossing above $500,000. That was off 5.5% from last year’s Memorial Day weekend, which had a record $93.4-million gross. But this year’s figure was still second best for the last 10 years.

“Cliffhanger,� starring Sylvester Stallone, led the field as had been expected. But while it had the highest gross of all non-sequels opening during the Memorial Day period, some had expected the film to do at least $5 million more.

* “Like Water for Chocolate,� the romantic film from Mexico, led the field of art-house releases with $940,815 on 172 screens. It was followed closely by Kenneth Branagh’s version of “Much Ado About Nothing,� which did an impressive $937,705 on only 35 screens.

Weekend Gross/ Screens/ Weeks in Movie (Studio) Total (millions) Average Release 1. “Cliffhanger� $20.4 2,333 1 (TriStar) $20.4 $8,769 2. “Made in America� $11.8 2,048 1 (Warner Bros.) $11.8 $5,772 3. “Dave� $8.9 1,916 4 (Warner Bros.) $40.7 $4,662 4. “Super Mario Bros.� $8.5 2,081 1 (Hollywood) $8.5 $4,100 5. “Hot Shots! Part Deux� $8.2 2,140 2 (Fox) $21.3 $3,842 6. “Sliver� $7.3 2,093 2 (Paramount) $23.4 $3,512 7. “Menace II Society� $3.8 464 1 (New Line) $4.5 $8,225 8. “Indecent Proposal� $3.3 1,602 8 (Paramount) $93.2 $2,056 9. “Dragon� $2.6 1,945 4 (Universal) $28.5 $1,331 10. “Posse� $2.2 788 3 (Gramercy) $13.4 $2,833 * “Like Water for Chocolate� $940,815 172 16 (Miramax) $7.3 $5,470

SOURCE: Exhibitor Relations Co.