Murphy’s ‘Coming to America’ Has Arrived at the Box Office

The Prince of Zamunda was the king of the box office over the Fourth of July weekend, reinforcing Eddie Murphy’s position as one of Hollywood’s top-drawing stars.

During its first six days in 2,064 theaters, Murphy’s new film, “Coming to America,” brought in more money than any other non-sequel in movie history, according to Paramount Pictures. Sequels are typically the highest-grossing films.

But “Coming to America” came close to sequel level, bringing in $28.4 million between June 29 and July 4, and averaging a whopping $13,764 per screen.

That’s better than Murphy’s “Beverly Hills Cop,” which opened at 1,532 theaters during Christmas, 1984, and grossed $19 million in its first five days, nearly $12,500 per screen. “Beverly Hills Cop II,” one of the biggest-grossing films, opened Memorial Day weekend last year and brought in $40.6 million in just six days on 2,326 screens.

“A given is that Eddie has a great following,” said Sidney Ganis, Paramount’s president of worldwide marketing. “This time the good news is that ‘Coming to America’ expands on that great constituency,” attracting more women to the film.

“Coming to America,” the story of an African prince’s attempt to find a bride in the jungles of New York, is Murphy’s second teaming with director John Landis, with whom he made “Trading Places” in 1983.

The holiday weekend was surprisingly strong for the entire movie industry, said John Krier, president of Exhibitor Relations Co. Normally, Krier said, Independence Day is not a huge movie-going weekend because people leave town or spend the holiday at barbecues and at the beach.

But Phil Garfinkle, senior vice president of Entertainment Data Inc., estimated that movie receipts were up at least 25%--at roughly $72 million--over last year’s holiday weekend. In part, Garfinkle said, that was due to the fact that the Fourth of July fell on Monday this year (last year it was a Saturday), giving the industry an extra day to draw crowds into theaters.

Just as important, however, were strong showings by “Coming to America” and Touchstone’s “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” Together, said Garfinkle, those two films accounted for nearly half the roughly $72 million in total receipts from this weekend. “Rabbit,” which was shown on 1,153 screens, grossed $14.5 million over the four-day weekend, or about $12,600 per screen.

In addition, Garfinkle and Krier noted that 20th Century Fox’s “Big,” starring Tom Hanks, continued its surprisingly strong showing. While receipts for “Big” dropped some from the previous weekend, the comedy managed to hang onto the No. 3 spot in an increasingly competitive summer season. Another comedy, Universal’s “Great Outdoors,” also made a strong showing over the weekend. And Orion’s made-for-adults baseball film, “Bull Durham” ran neck and neck with “ ‘Crocodile’ Dundee II.”

While Paramount can look forward to huge summer grosses from “Coming to America,” another of the studio’s summer films, “Presidio,” sank as fast as a car falling into San Francisco Bay. Despite its two big stars--Sean Connery and Mark Harmon--and hair-raising chase scenes through San Francisco, “Presidio” dropped off about 30% from the previous weekend, bringing in a paltry $1.8 million over four days at 1,058 theaters.

Another action picture, Carolco’s “Red Heat,” also suffered a substantial drop-off in its audience. “ ‘Red Heat’ was hurt badly by Eddie Murphy,” said David Rosenfelt, executive vice president of marketing for Tri-Star Pictures, which is distributing the film.

Carolco’s other summer release, “Rambo III,” also distributed by Tri-Star, continues to get beat up by the competition. Rosenfelt confirmed that Tri-Star had dropped an advertising campaign aimed at attracting more women to the “Rambo III” audience.

“The picture fell off much more rapidly than expected,” Rosenfelt said, “leaving less discretionary advertising money.”