Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" won't be riding into the sunset anytime soon. The Western held steady at the top of the national box office for the second weekend, dropping only 24% from its boffo opening. The thriller "Single White Female" opened to strong numbers, while the TV-themed comedy "Stay Tuned" with John Ritter had a fuzzy reception.
"Raising Cain" and "Whispers in the Dark," both in only their second weekends, showed signs of bad word-of-mouth, as both movies saw grosses plunge about 45% from their first weekends.
Overall ticket sales were almost 20% ahead of the same weekend last summer, and helped position this summer's box-office results slightly ahead of last year's pace.
* "Diggstown," the comedy starring James Woods and Louis Gossett Jr., opened slowly, grossing $1.5 million on 733 screens to land in 12th place.
Weekend Gross/ Screens/ Weeks in Movie (Studio) Total (millions) Average Release 1. "Unforgiven" $11.4 2,087 2 (Warner Bros.) $33.8 $5,450 2. "Single White Female" $10.2 1,744 1 (Columbia) $10.2 $5,856 3. "Death Becomes Her" $5.9 1,754 3 (Universal) $35.3 $3,365 4. "3 Ninjas" $4.6 1,954 2 (Touchstone) $14 $2,370 5. "A League of Their Own" $3.8 1,888 7 (Columbia) $89 $2,024 6. "Stay Tuned" $3.5 1,605 1 (Warner Bros.) $3.5 $2,201 7. "Raising Cain" $3.4 1,698 2 (Universal) $12.6 $2,010 8. "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid" $2.5 1,781 5 (Walt Disney) $49.1 $1,404 9. "Sister Act" $2.4 1,361 12 (Touchstone) $120.8 $1,795 10. "Mo' Money" $2.3 1,410 4 (Columbia) $33.6 $1,639 * "Diggstown" $1.5 733 1 (MGM) $1.5 $2,052
SOURCE: Exhibitor Relations Co.
