Old jokes are better than no jokes at all. They schwung the debuting Wayne's World 2 to the top of the pack and sang Sister Act 2 to third position. With no jokes, Geronimo: An American Legend had to settle for a mediocre $4 million opening. But even old jokes eventually run out of punch lines: Despite a $13.5 million opening, Wayne's World 2 lacked momentum-its audience didn't grow during the weekend, suggesting that Wayne and Garth aren't attracting new fans. And Sister Act 2's opening was nearly 40 percent weaker than its predecessor's was in 1992. Old jokes are no substitute for new jokes: Mrs. Doubtfire is, so far, the season's only breakout hit. Weekend Gross to Weeks in Gross* Top 20 Date Release 1 $13.5 Wayne's World 2 Paramount, Dana Carvey $13.5 1 2 $10.2 Mrs. Doubtfire 20th Century Fox, Robin Williams $60.6 3 3 $7.6 Sister Act 2 Buena Vista, Whoopi Goldberg $7.6 1 4 $4.0 Geronimo Columbia, Wes Studi $4.0 1 5 $2.8 A Perfect World , Warner Bros., Kevin Costner $22.9 3 6 $2.0 The Three Musketeers Touchstone, Charlie Sheen $41.1 5 7 $1.9 Addams Family Values Paramount, Raul Julia $39.0 4 8 $1.3 Carlito's Way Universal, Al Pacino $31.1 5 9 $1.3 The Piano Miramax, Holly Hunter $9.2 5 10 $1.1 My Life Columbia, Michael Keaton $24.0 5 11 $0.7 Jurassic Park Universal, Sam Neill. $335.9 27 12 $0.7 The Remains Of The Day Columbia, Anthony Hopkins $13.6 6 13 $0.7 Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Touchstone, Animated $46.7 9 14 $0.6 We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story Universal, Animated $7.2 3 15 $0.5 Man's Best Friend New Line, Ally Sheedy $10.6 4 16 $0.5 The Beverly Hillbillies 20th Century Fox, Jim Varney $40.2 9 17 $0.5 Cool Runnings Walt Disney, Leon $56.7 11 18 $0.3 The Good Son 20th Century Fox, Macaulay Culkin $43.9 12 19 $0.3 A Dangerous Woman Gramercy, Debra Winger $1.1 2 20 $0.2 Sleepless in Seattle TriStar, Meg Ryan $126.0 25
Weekend Per-Screen No. of Average Top 10 / Per Screen Screens 1 $5.632 Wayne's World 2 Paramount 2,400 2 $5.185 Mrs. Doubtfire 20th Century Fox 1,959 3 $4.703 The Piano Miramax. 274 4 $3,550 Sister Act 2 Buena Vista 2,132 5 $2,504 Geronimo Columbia 1,605 6 $1,462 The Remains Of The Day Columbia 491 7 $1,433 A Perfect World Warner Bros. 1,964 8 $1,060 Carlito's Way Universal 1,266 9 $1,012 The Three Musketeers Touchstone 1,951 10 $990 Jurassic Park Universal 752
Source: Exhibitor Relations Co., Inc. *Weekend of Dec. 10-12 (dollar figures in millions) Drawn from 20 top-grossing films
