THEY'RE 'WAITING' TO PREVAIL

Women are rewarding the film's more upscale portrayal in the only way that counts: by bringing their 5 or 15 or--according to one report about a Houston woman--their 300 best friends to see it. They're also putting their mouths where their money is. Says Exhale producer Deborah Schindler, "I've heard from several theater managers that people are coming back because they couldn't hear all the dialogue."

At some showings, it's amazing they can hear any of it. After the long-suffering Bernadine (Angela Bassett) throws her husband's Cartier watches and $1,000 suits in his BMW and douses them with lighter fluid, movie houses ring with the cry "You burn that s---!" When Savannah (Whitney Houston) tells off yet another loser: "You go, girl!" When Gloria (Loretta Devine) struts her stuff in front of Gregory Hines: "Work it!" When a drunk date comes by to pick up Robin (Rochon): "He's plastered!"

It's no accident that the responses seem as practiced as those heard at a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. "I'm recognizing people from three or four visits," says Jose Nunez, who manages the Magic Johnson Theatre complex in L.A.'s largely African-American Crenshaw district. "They're basically coming in groups. Someone will watch the movie and bring their mother, then their mother's mother, then their sisters and their cousins.... And they're staying afterwards to discuss it in the lobby. It's like a big party."

It's a gala that Hollywood is eager to crash: Schindler and her partner, Ezra Swerdlow, are considering adapting McMillan's 1989 novel Disappearing Acts, and Oprah Winfrey--who has so far devoted two hour-long shows to Exhale--is developing Toni Morrison's 1987 novel Beloved at Buena Vista. Even so, they may not reach screens soon enough for an audience that's finally been noticed and is hungry for more attention. "There better be another one [like Exhale] next year," warns Sharon Parker, after leaving New York's Nova theater fully satisfied. "Or I will get on the picket lines." (With L.A. bureau reports)