Hollywood scores record-setting box office weekend.

Tinseltown may be headed toward its best year ever

Hollywood struck a mighty blow at the box office the weekend of July 22-24 racking up the industry's largest three-day, non-holiday weekend gross ever.

Led by Paramount Pictures Corp.'s "Forrest Gump," Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.'s "True Lies" and Warner Bros.' newcomer "The Client," the nation's box offices took in a whopping $104.3 million over the three-day period, according to Entertainment Data Inc., a box office tracking service.

This bested last year's July 9-11 weekend, which saw "The Firm," "Jurassic Park" and "Sleepless in Seattle" rake in $103.5 million.

"Forrest Gump" led the recent weekend's box office, with a gross of $21.9 million, followed closely by "True Lies," with $20.7 million.

"The Client," in its first week of release, took in an impressive $17.2 million for third place. The fourth and fifth spots went to Walt Disney Pictures' "The Lion King," at $14 million, and its new release "Angels in the Outfield," with $6.9 million.

"This summer has sort of been a phenomenon," said Tom Borys, vice president of operations and development at EDI. "We've had five weekends over $100 million."

To put that into perspective, Borys said, until now only five weekends have ever reached the $100-million mark.

Hollywood had been flirting with the three-day box office record throughout this summer. The July 15-17 weekend came closest, with "True Lies," "Forrest Gump" and "The Lion King" scoring a combined $101.8 million.

Other big summer weekends included the four-day Fourth of July weekend, when $115.4 million was taken in, the four-day Memorial Day weekend, with its $102.4 million take, and the three-day June 24 weekend, when movie-goers plunked down $101.6 million for tickets.

"It's all product-driven," said Borys of the box office boom. "You've got three mega-hits out there with 'True Lies,' 'Forrest Gump' and 'The Lion King.' When you've got this many films that the audience wants to see, it's going to drive the box office up."

And don't be surprised if two more $100 million weekends, sparked by the July 29 opening of "The Mask" and the Aug. 5 opening of "Clear and Present Danger," Borys said.

Despite the blockbuster weekends, this summer's overall box office pace is behind last year's record-breaking summer tally. EDI has the 1994 summer season about 3.3 percent -- or $40 million -- behind the previous summer. From Memorial Day through Sunday, July 24, the nation's total summer box office draw this year has been $1.16 billion, Borys said. The like period last year saw a box office gross of $1.20 billion.

Part of last year's slightly better summer box office performance was due to the strength of "Jurassic Park," which opened early last summer and stayed strong throughout, Borys said.

By contrast, he said, this year saw a weak spring that did little to help ticket sales in the early summer.

"We're just slightly behind last summer," said John Krier, president of the box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations. "But the next two weekends should put us ahead."

Last year had two runaway hits in "Jurassic Park" and "The Firm," Krier said. This year, the hits are more evenly spread out, and ultimately should create more interest in the movies that should translate into a larger overall box office draw, he said.

"This interest in the movies compounds itself," Krier said, predicting that 1994 will end up with the best summer season on record.

"Most people are optimistic that, with the next three weekends, we'll pull even with last year's pace," Borys agreed. "It's going to be a photo finish as the summer ends."