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Holly Jolly, indeed. Though box office receipts this Christmas season were up, good cheer was not had by all the studios. A number of anticipated films got lost in the glut and registered earnings on the ho-ho-hum side (see chart on page 43). ''There was nothing wrong with these pictures,'' says trend meister John Krier, president of Exhibitor Relations, Inc. ''But when there are so many [films], someone's gonna get hurt.'' Consider:
LEFT IN THE ANGEL DUST was Penny Marshall's The Preacher's Wife. The pairing of Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington appeared to be a match made in box office heaven, but after three weeks, the fantasy has earned a less-than-celestial $28 million. While Exhibitor Relations' Paul Dergarabedian says ''word of mouth on the film was obviously not good,'' Disney is still expecting a miracle. ''You always want something to do more, but [the movie]has looked good since Christmas Day,'' says studio distribution president Phil Barlow. Still, Wife will now have to vie with John Travolta's Michael -- which opened to $17.8 million -- for angel-loving audiences.
THE MOVIE-HUNK PLAY-OFFS saw Tom Cruise defeat George Clooney. Cruise's Jerry Maguire took in more than $60 million in three weeks, while Clooney's One Fine Day grossed a mere $19 million in two weeks. ''We're definitely disappointed,'' says Tom Sherak, senior executive VP for Twentieth Century Fox Filmed Entertainment. Like Barlow, Sherak is also hoping the new year will be better. But Krier thinks One Fine Day's problem is a matter of timing. ''It got lost,'' he notes. ''In September or October, it would have done much better.''
THE YOUTH MOVEMENT conquered the old-timers as Beavis and Butt-head Do America opened to $20 million, more than the combined grosses of geezer flicks My Fellow Americans ($10 million) and The Evening Star ($3.3 million). Says Wayne Lewellen, Paramount president of distribution, ''If anyone here says they knew that [Beavis and Butt-head] would do this well, they're liars.''
