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In a probable case of exaggeration, major studio Warner Bros. and Disney-owned independent Miramax-both of which have been accused of cooking box office figures in the past-played a wild game of ''Can you top this?'' in reporting the weekend numbers for The Specialist and Pulp Fiction, respectively. While Miramax finally claimed victory for its sadistically bloody crime film, industry sources agreed that both estimates were inflated. One feather in Fiction's cap: Its 21 2-hour running time allowed an average of only four daily showings versus The Specialist's five, making its final take even more impressive. Weekend Gross to Weeks in Gross* Top 20 Date Release 1 $9.3 Pulp Fiction Miramax, John Travolta $9.3 1 2 $9.0 The Specialist Warner Bros., Sylvester Stallone $28.7 2 3 $6.7 Wes Craven's New Nightmare New Line, Robert Englund $6.7 1 4 $5.2 The River Wild Universal,Meryl Streep $27.7 3 5 $4.8 Little Giants Warner Bros., Rick Moranis $4.8 1 6 $4.1 Only You TriStar, Marisa Tomei $11.6 2 7 $3.3 Forrest Gump Paramount, Tom Hanks $279.7 15 8 $3.0 Exit to Eden Savoy, Dana Delany $3.0 1 9 $2.4 The Shawshank Redemption Columbia, Tim Robbins $7.2 4 10 $2.1 Quiz Show Hollywood, Ralph Fiennes $15.7 5 11 $2.0 Jason's Lyric Gramercy, Jada Pinkett $14.3 3 12 $1.8 Timecop Universal, Jean-Claude Van Damme $39.0 5 13 $1.0 Ed Wood Touchstone, Johnny Depp $4.0 3 14 $0.9 The Little Rascals Universal, Bug Hall $48.8 11 15 $0.7 Terminal Velocity Hollywood, Charlie Sheen $14.4 4 16 $0.7 The Client Warner Bros., Susan Sarandon $90.2 13 17 $0.6 Clear and Present Danger Paramount, Harrison Ford $118.4 11 18 $0.5 True Lies 20th Century Fox, Arnold Schwarzenegger $142.5 14 19 $0.5 Angels in the Outfield Walt Disney, Danny Glover $49.2 14 20 $0.4 The Mask New Line, Jim Carrey $112.0 12
Weekend Per-Screen No. of | Average Top 10 / Per Screen Screens 1 $6,960 Pulp Fiction Miramax 1,338 2 $3,604 Wes Craven's New Nightmare New Line 1,850 3 $3,558 The Specialist Warner Bros. 2,522 4 $3,254 Jason's Lyric Gramercy 629 5 $2,614 Quiz Show Hollywood 822 6 $2,572 Only You TriStar 1,600 7 $2,545 The Shawshank Redemption Columbia 944 8 $2,430 The River Wild Universal 2,153 9 $2,363 Little Giants Warner Bros. 2,022 10 $1,804 Exit to Eden Savoy 1,670 *Weedend of Oct. 14-16 (All dollar figures in millions) Drawn from 20 top-grossing films
