Weekend Box Office: ‘Siege’ Continues Its Onslaught

The Steven Seagal action picture “Under Siege” continued its dominance at the national box office for a third weekend, selling tickets at twice the pace of its nearest competitor. Not since summer’s “Batman Returns,” “Lethal Weapon 3,” “Sister Act” and “Unforgiven” has a film raced to a box-office total approaching $50 million this quickly.

As one measure of just how popular Warner Bros.’ “Under Siege” has been, its gross after three weekends hit $42.5 million, while it has taken 20th Century Fox’s “The Last of the Mohicans”--which has been no box-office slouch by any standard--five weekends to gross $49.8 million.

Together, “Siege” and “Mohicans” have invigorated moviegoing in the normally slow months of September and October, aided by the high-tech caper “Sneakers” starring Robert Redford, and the family comedy from Walt Disney, “The Mighty Ducks.” To date, Universal Pictures’ “Sneakers,” which opened at the beginning of September, has grossed $43.5 million. But even more impressive, Disney’s low-budget “Ducks,” which was estimated to cost in the neighborhood of $12 million to produce, stands at nearly $27 million.

Grosses for the two months have boosted the year-to-date total to within about 2% of the pace of last year at this time. With what industry sources believe to be a very strong Thanksgiving-to-Christmas season of films, there is optimism that total box-office gross for 1992 will end ahead of 1991--which was the third best on record.

Looking to this weekend, industry insiders believe the standings of the top four films will continue unchanged, with little competition from new titles. Business traditionally is off on Halloween weekend.

In opening weekend returns, the blood and gore “Dr. Giggles” scared up only limp business, considering that it opened on more than 1,600 screens.

Weekend Gross/ Screens/ Weeks in Movie (Studio) Total (millions) Average Release 1. “Under Siege” $9 2,248 3 (Warner Bros.) $42.5 $4,014 2. “The Last of the Mohicans” $4.4 1,845 (Fox) $49.8 $2,412 3. “Candyman” $4.22 1,481 2 (TriStar) $11.2 $2,850 4. “The Mighty Ducks” $4.2 1,851 4 (Walt Disney) $26.7 $2,271 5. “Consenting Adults” $3.7 1,538 2 (Hollywood) $10.3 $2,408 6. “Dr. Giggles” $2.71 1,681 1 (Universal) $2.71 $1,615 7. “Pure Country” $2.7 993 1 (Warner Bros.) $2.7 $2,759 8. “Night and the City” $2.5 1,100 1 (Fox) $2.6 $2,324 9. “A River Runs Through It” $1.58 130 3 (Columbia) $2.6 $12,203 10. “Mr. Baseball” $1.53 1,484 4 (Universal) $14.9 $1,035 * “Reservoir Dogs” $147,839 19 1 (Miramax) $147,839 $7,781

SOURCE: Exhibitor Relations Co. * The ultraviolent “Reservoir Dogs,” which has generated film festival interest, showed some box-office potential with $147,000 on only 19 screens.