DOUGH AND 'ARROW'

FACED WITH a crowded field of Christmas competitors, 20th Century Fox decided to delay the launch of Broken Arrow, despite the one-two punch of stars John Travolta and Christian Slater. And the plan worked: The nuclear thriller delivered a record payload, $15.6 million, the biggest three-day February debut ever. No wonder Arrow director John Woo is already talking about teaming with Travolta again for a detective-gone-undercover thriller called Face Off. The weekend's only other new national release, Beautiful Girls, landed in seventh place, drawing slightly more than half the audience of Arrow per screen. Girls is scheduled to expand its run on Feb. 16.

TOP 20

WEEKEND GROSS WEEKS IN GROSS* TO DATE RELEASE

1 $15.6 BROKEN ARROW 20th Century Fox, John Travolta $15.6 1 2 $6.8 MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS Hollywood, Richard Dreyfuss $40.3 4 3 $6.5 BLACK SHEEP Paramount, Chris Farley $19.3 2 4 $4.4 THE JUROR Columbia, Demi Moore $15.3 2 5 $3.3 LEAVING LAS VEGAS United Artists, Nicolas Cage $15.4 16 6 $2.9 DEAD MAN WALKING Gramercy, Susan Sarandon $13.9 7 7 $2.8 BEAUTIFUL GIRLS Miramax, Timothy Hutton $2.8 1 8 $2.7 BED OF ROSES New Line, Christian Slater $15.1 3 9 $2.4 SENSE AND SENSIBILITY Columbia, Emma Thompson $24.3 9 10 $2.4 WHITE SQUALL Hollywood, Jeff Bridges $7.4 2 11 $1.7 12 MONKEYS Universal, Bruce Willis $51.8 7 12 $1.4 JUMANJI TriStar, Robin Williams $90.6 9 13 $1.3 GRUMPIER OLD MEN Warner Bros., Jack Lemmon $67.6 8 14 $1.1 FROM DUSK TILL DAWN Dimension, George Clooney $23.5 4 15 $1.1 EYE FOR AN EYE Paramount, Sally Field $24.8 5 16 $0.9 TOY STORY Walt Disney, Animated $180.7 12 17 $0.8 SEVEN New Line, Brad Pitt $94.3 19 18 $0.7 RESTORATION Miramax, Robert Downey Jr. $2.9 7 19 $0.7 ACE VENTURA: WHEN NATURE CALLS Warner Bros., Jim Carrey $106.1 14 20 $0.7 WAITING TO EXHALE 20th Century Fox, Angela Bassett $63.3 8

TOP 10 / PER SCREEN

WEEKEND NO. OF PER-SCREEN SCREENS AVERAGE 

1 $6,526 BROKEN ARROW 20th Century Fox 2,388 2 $4,072 MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS Hollywood 1,659 3 $3,673 BEAUTIFUL GIRLS Miramax 752 4 $3,513 DEAD MAN WALKING Gramercy 821 5 $3,100 BLACK SHEEP Paramount 2,092 6 $2,525 SENSE AND SENSIBILITY Columbia 952 7 $2,483 LEAVING LAS VEGAS United Artists 1,310 8 $2,004 THE JUROR Columbia 2,205 9 $1,759 BED OF ROSES New Line 1,533 10 $1,635 RESTORATION Miramax 457