Disney's THE ROCK scored well both here in the U.S. and in foreign markets, along with Warner Bros.' ERASER and Universal's THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, which is Eddie Murphy's first big hit since COMING TO AMERICA. Disney's THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME performed well below expectations, earning around $100 million.

Although there were plenty of visual effects hits at the box office this summer, there were certainly bombs as well. CHAIN REACTION performed horribly for Fox, earning only $20 million to date. That's a far cry from Andrew Davis' last film, THE FUGITIVE which earned over $180 million in 1993. THE PHANTOM also was Paramount's bomb of the summer, earning only $25 million.

New Line's KAZAAM didn't fly with too many kids, as it earned only $17 million, while the excellent film THE FRIGHTENERS failed to find an audience and earned a meager $16 million at the box office.

Probably the biggest bomb of the summer had to be JOE'S APARTMENT. Although it was coupled with a huge marketing campaign by MTV, and was touted as "MTV's first feature film", no one seemed to care. The film has grossed a paltry $4 million to date.

What does this mean for effects films? ID4, TWISTER and MISSION coming in at the 1, 2 and 3 slots certainly solidifies the action/sci-fi genre as money-making territory. Look for studio execs to examine the numbers and plan to make plenty more effects films.