Some love it. Many hate it. But it seems they all just had to see it to believe it. In a record debut weekend for controversial auteur Oliver Stone, the ultraviolent Natural Born Killers blasted its way to the top with $11.2 million. So much for Warner execs' initial fears that moviegoers would shy away from the movie's extremely bloody imagery and fractured storytelling. As for the week's best-kept secret, Touchstone unceremoniously dumped It's Pat-a comedy based on Julia Sweeney's gender-blending Saturday Night Live character-onto just 33 screens, raking in a pathetic $951 per. Weekend Gross Weeks in Gross* Top 20 Date Release 1 $11.2 Natural Born Killers Warner Bros., Woody Harrelson $11.2 1 2 $9.9 Forrest Bump Paramount, Tom Hanks $222.3 8 3 $8.2 Clear and Present Danger Paramount, Harrison Ford $86.3 4 4 $5.3 The Mask New Line, Jim Carrey $91.9 5 5 $3.8 Corrina, Corrina New Line, Whoopi Goldberg $4.3 3 6 $3.5 Color of Night Hollywood,Bruce Willis $12.9 2 - 7 $3.4 True Lies 20th Century Fox, Arnold Schwarzenegger $126.7 7 8 $3.0 The Lion King Walt Disney, Animated $256.9 11 9 $2.8 Camp Nowhere Hollywood, Christopher Lloyd $2.8 1 10 $2.7 The Client Warner Bros., Susan Sarandon $78.5 6 11 $2.7 The Little Rascals Universal, Bug Hall $37.2 4 12 $2.4 In The Army Now Hollywood,Pauly Shore $18.6 3 13 $2.4 Andre Paramount, Tina Majorino $10.1 2 14 $1.8 Wagons East! TriStar, Richard Lewis, John Candy $1.8 1 15 $1.7 Maverick Warner Bros., Mel Gibson $96.3 15 16 $1.4 It Could Happen To You TriStar, Nicolas Cage $30.7 5 17 $1.4 Blankman Columbia, Damon Wayans $6.5 2 18 $0.7 Speed 20th Century Fox, Keanu Reeves $113.4 12 19 $0.7 Barcelona Fine Line, Taylor Nichols $3.8 5 20 $0.6 The Flintstones Universal, John Goodman $128.2 14
No. of Top 10 / Per Screen Screens 1 $7,395 Natural Born Killers Warner Bros. 1,510 2 $5,460 Corrina, Corrina New Line 698 3 $4,424 Forrest Gump Paramount 2,237 4 $3,432 Clear and Present Fanger Paramount 2,379 5 $3,294 Barcelona Fine Line 209 6 $2,242 The Lion King Walt Disney 1,344 7 $2,239 True Lies 20th Century Fox 1,530 8 $2,122 The Mask New Line 2,516 9 $2,029 Camp Nowhere Hollywood 1,358 10 $2,006 Color of Night Hollywood. 1,740 *Weekend of Aug. 26-28 (All dollar figures in millions) Drawn from 20 Top-grossing films
