What might have been a gigantic weekend at box offices across the nation, considering the opening of three major movies and the continuing popularity of "Mrs. Doubtfire," turned out instead to be somewhat lighter than Hollywood would have liked.
With the public clearly opting for comedies in the midst of the holiday season, "Wayne's World 2" led the top 10-grossing movies, with $14.2 million estimated on 2,400 screens for its first weekend. The comedy, with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as two party-animal dudes, is Paramount Pictures' follow-up to 1992's highly successful "Wayne's World" which grossed $121.7 million in the U.S. and Canada. The original film took in $18.1 million in its debut over a four-day President's Day weekend.
"Mrs. Doubtfire," with Robin Williams posing as a nanny, grossed $10 million in wide release for second place. The 20th Century Fox film has now accumulated $60 million after only three weekends.
In third place was another new film, "Sister Act 2: Back In the Habit," from Disney's Touchstone division. The Whoopi Goldberg singing nun sequel grossed $7.5 million on 2,132 screens for the Friday-though-Sunday period. The original "Sister Act," which debuted on a non-holiday week-end in May 1992, also during a busy movie-going period, grossed $11.9 million in its first weekend. Although the original "Sister Act" never occupied first place in the top 10, it eventually took in $140 million.