GOODBYE, 'COLUMBUS'

It didn't take a lot to sink Christopher Columbus: The Discovery. This epic (the first of two 1992 Col-umbus pics) was not screened for critics, but by the time it opened it had generated enough negative buzz to keep viewers away. The movie earned a dead-in-the-water $3.1 million as well as a C from audiences polled by CinemaScore. Rapid Fire, starring martial-arts newcomer Brandon Lee, fared slightly better, with a $4.8 million tally and a CinemaScore grade of B+. Still, given that action flicks do much of their business in the first two weeks, it seems headed for a quick flameout. Coming on strong were Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven and the season's breakaway art- house hit, Enchanted April (off the chart), which cracked the $1 million mark in only three weeks. WEEKEND TOP TEN GROSS WEEKS IN GROSS* TO DATE RELEASE

1 $7.74 Unforgiven $46.13 3 Warner Bros. (2,087 screens) 2 $6.42 Single White Female $21.44 2 Columbia (1,744 screens) 3 $4.82 Rapid Fire $4.82 1 20th Century Fox (1,828 screens) 4 $3.81 Death Becomes Her $41.93 4 Universal (1,866 screens) 5 $3.10 Christopher Columbus $3.10 1 Warner Bros. (1,506 screens) 6 $2.71 A League Of Their Own. $93.76 8 Columbia (1,715 screens) 7 $2.57 3 Ninjas $19.07 3 Touchstone (1,910 screens) 8 $1.86 Raising Cain $16.16 3 Universal (1,515 screens) 9 $1.70 Sister Act $123.81 13 Touchstone (1,172 screens) 10 $1.68 Stay Tuned $7.08 2 Warner Bros. (1,600 screens) audience polling information provided by Cinemascore *weekend of AUG 21-23 (all dollar figures in millions)