‘48 HRS’ Fails to Top ‘Total’ Ticket Sales

The boys may be back in town, but they’re having a hard time muscling out Arnold Schwarzenegger at the box office.

Paramount Pictures’ “Another 48 HRS.,” starring Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in a sequel to their 1982 buddy-cop hit, “48HRS.,” opened with three-day weekend ticket sales of approximately $16.8 million--barely $1 million more than Schwarzenegger’s “Total Recall” earned in its second weekend.

Starring Schwarzenegger as a man who travels to Mars to learn the truth about his past, Tri-Star Pictures’ “Total Recall” had ticket sales of about $15.7 million, following its record-making opening weekend of $25.5 million--the year’s biggest to date.

In third place was Universal Pictures’ “Back to the Future III,” with ticket sales of about $7.6 million, bringing its total earnings to more than $48 million after three weeks.

Universal also took fourth place: “Bird on a Wire,” starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn, had ticket sales of about $4.8 million, for grosses of more than $45 million after four weeks. This marks a significant comeback for Hawn, who hasn’t had a major hit since “Private Benjamin” grossed $70 million a decade ago. (Hawn’s last film, 1988’s “Overboard,” had ticket sales of only $24.8 million.)

In fifth place, with ticket sales of about $4.4 million, was the leggy “Pretty Woman.” Grosses for the Touchstone Pictures’ romantic comedy are now more than $130 million.

Falling short of predictions made by Paramount executives, the performance of “Another 48HRS.” just edges out the three-day opening of Murphy’s last movie, the critically assailed “Harlem Nights,” which Murphy also directed. Opening with three-day ticket sales of $16 million, “Harlem Nights” went on to gross $60 million, a disappointing figure compared to previous Murphy entries.