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 *Weekend of Oct.28-30 (all dollar figures in millions) Drawn from 20 top-grossing films
