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How crucial is it to open at No. 1? Ask Paramount Pictures and New Line Cinema, which clashed over bragging rights to a lackluster weekend. The battle was joined Sunday morning, when New Line estimated that The Long Kiss Goodnight would gross $9 million and be No. 1; Paramount followed, predicting $9.3 million for The Ghost and the Darkness and $9.2 million for its established hit, The First Wives Club. Determined not to be trumped, New Line held off releasing final figures. But by late Monday, reporting services had their own numbers: Exhibitor Relations and Daily Variety both pegged Ghost at $8.8 million and Kiss at $8.4 million. That spurred New Line to report $9 million for Kiss again. Paramount shot back, putting Ghost at $9.2 million and Wives at $9.1 million. Which left New Line with nothing but accusations. ''We really won,'' the studio's Mitch Goldman insisted Tuesday, ''but our competitor chose to increase their figures to make sure they were higher than ours.'' Yet sources at other studios agree that Ghost came in first and Kiss -- whose $65 million budget makes it New Line's most expensive release ever -- third. Most also suspect that both studios inflated their numbers by as much as $500,000. As Fox exec Tom Sherak says, ''It's gotten totally out of hand.''
WEEKEND GROSS WEEKS IN GROSS* TOP 20 TO DATE RELEASE
1 $9.2 THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS Paramount, Val Kilmer $9.2 1 2 $9.1 THE FIRST WIVES CLUB Paramount, Goldie Hawn $72.1 4 3 $9.1 THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT New Line, Geena Davis $9.1 1 4 $5.6 THE CHAMBER Universal, Chris O'Donnell $5.6 1 5 $4.9 THAT THING YOU DO! 20th Century Fox, Tom Hanks $12.6 2 6 $4.2 D3: THE MIGHTY DUCKS Walt Disney, Emilio Estevez $11.3 2 7 $4.1 THE GLIMMER MAN Warner Bros., Steven Seagal $14.2 2 8 $1.6 EXTREME MEASURES Columbia, Hugh Grant $15.7 3 9 $1.6 FLY AWAY HOME Columbia, Anna Paquin $17.9 5 10 $1.3 INDEPENDENCE DAY 20th Century Fox, Will Smith $297.4 15 11 $1.2 2 DAYS IN THE VALLEY MGM, James Spader $9.0 3 12 $1.1 BIG NIGHT Samuel Goldwyn, Stanley Tucci $4.0 4 13 $0.6 BOUND Gramercy, Gina Gershon $1.9 2 14 $0.5 LAST MAN STANDING New Line, Bruce Willis $17.1 4 15 $0.5 THE NUTTY PROFESSOR Universal, Eddie Murphy $127.0 16 16 $0.5 THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME Walt Disney, Animated $97.0 17 17 $0.4 BULLETPROOF Universal, Damon Wayans $20.6 5 18 $0.4 SECRETS & LIES October, Brenda Blethyn $0.8 3 19 $0.4 FIRST KID Walt Disney, Sinbad $24.2 7 20 $0.3 COURAGE UNDER FIRE 20th Century Fox, Denzel Washington $58.1 14
SOURCE: EXHIBITOR RELATIONS CO. INC. *WEEKEND OF OCT. 11-13 (ALL DOLLAR FIGURES IN MILLIONS) [**]DRAWN FROM 20 TOP-GROSSING FILMS [***]INCLUDES SOME MULTISCREEN THEATERS AND PRINTS SHIPPED AS WELL AS INDIVIDUAL SCREENS
