Mail: Box Office Winners & Losers

Cinema Toast

Your movie coverage never ceases to amaze me. I loved reading the 1994 ''Box Office Winners & Losers'' (#260, Feb. 3). By comparing budget versus gross, one gets a better perspective on how well a movie does (for example: Pulp Fiction grosses almost nine times its budget). And getting a brief summary of '95 releases has me reaching for the popcorn.
Steve Pearson
Chicago

I can't believe it! While producing reel upon reel of schlock that appeals to the lowest common denominator of the film-viewing public, studio heads have the audacity to complain about how hard it is to produce a hit and make money? Don't these people take a look at what they are putting up on the screen? For all the studio heads out there, here's an idea: Instead of throwing money away on junk story lines and second-rate performers, invest in a few talented writers. Not only would you save money initially, you might actually make money, because talented writers have a tendency to produce work that we want to see.
Karen Linehan
St. Louis

Your magazine is helping to destroy American cinema! Since when is a movie's quality judged by its profitability? Your glorification of the financial aspects of the industry will make it harder and harder for quality films to be made in the future. Nowadays, unless a movie opens with a $20 million gross in its first weekend at the box office, it is considered a total failure. What has happened to quality and content in films?
Paul A. Nucci
Ypsilanti, Mich.

It's sad when our American-made movies have a better chance at success overseas simply because Americans don't appreciate the time and trouble it takes to make a movie. I am so sick and tired of all the bashing of Kevin Costner's movies. So let me set the record straight: A Perfect World had Mrs. Doubtfire to go up against and get in its way; Wyatt Earp happened to be pitted against Disney's The Lion King at the box office; and then The War was put up against several major Christmas movies. It is the movie studios' bad timing that's at fault -- not the films themselves. And please, can't you at least wait until Waterworld is released before you ambush it, too? Cut Kevin Costner some slack!
E.T. Smithe
Riverside, Calif.

I don't know why it should surprise me, but year-end reviews of box office winners and losers never reflect my own views on the year's good and bad films. I think StarGate was much better than Star Trek Generations, Wyatt Earp was quicker on the draw than Maverick, and The Professional delivered much more than The Specialist.
Bill Shapard Jr.
jshapardCypress.mcsr.olemiss.edu
Oxford, Miss.

Hugh and Cry

If you felt the need to show one of the movie stars stripped to the waist on the cover of your ''Box Office Winners & Losers'' issue, you should have chosen Keanu Reeves. He's got a much better chest than Hugh Grant.
Florence J. Ring
Scarsdale, N.Y.