‘Cup’ Debuts at No. 1 as Box Office Hits Lull

With weekend moviegoing dwindling to its lowest of the summer, Kevin Costner’s “Tin Cup” took first place at the box office with a debut that brought in an estimated $10.1 million.

Another opening film, “The Fan,” starring Robert De Niro and Wesley Snipes, came in fourth at about $6.2 million.

While Costner’s numbers may not have been all that Warner Bros. would have liked, the results for the De Niro-Snipes film had to be particularly troubling for TriStar, since that studio has about $60 million-plus invested in the project, industry sources said.

Overall, seven films opened on a weekend that saw box-office numbers for the top 10 films fall an estimated 23% from a year ago--$54 million versus $70 million, said John Krier of the box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.

Krier said the usual seasonal box-office slump has arrived a month early this year. “The summer movie season usually starts Memorial Day, but this year it opened with ‘Twister’ in mid-May,” he said. “Summer was too front-loaded with all of the big pictures opening early, then the Olympics came along and now kids and parents are getting ready for school.”

Only five of seven openers were in the running for the top 10 list. Besides “Tin Cup” and “The Fan,” Castle Rock’s “Alaska,” a Columbia release, was eighth with about $3 million. “Bordello of Blood” (Universal) and “House Arrest” (MGM/UA) were vying with Miramax’s “Emma,” in its third week, for 10th, all reporting about $2.5 million.

Others in the top 10: Hollywood Pictures’ “Jack,” second, with an estimated $8.5 million; Warners’ “A Time to Kill,” third, $8 million; “Independence Day,” fifth, about $5.6 million ($266.7 million in seven weeks); “John Carpenter’s Escape From L.A.,” sixth, $4.2 million; “Matilda,” seventh, $3.1 million; and “Phenomenon,” ninth, $2.6 million.

Official weekend box-office figures will be released today.