‘Mortal Kombat’ Stays On Top

With its kindergarten-level screenplay and graduate-school fighting scenes, video-game-turned-movie “Mortal Kombat” keeps attracting the teen crowd.

Reigning atop the box-office listing for the third straight week, the action film added $8.3 million to its ticket coffers, which already total $55.1 million.

According to figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations Inc., “Mortal Kombat” kept just ahead “Dangerous Minds,” the urban-school drama starring Michelle Pfeiffer that grossed $7.9 million.

Just back at No. 3, “The Prophecy” ended up as the week’s best debut with a $7.5 million take. That was a sight better than “Magic In the Water,” which ended up at No. 16 with a gross of $1.5 million despite opening on Wednesday.

Bryan Singer’s “The Usual Suspects,” an inventive twist on the heist film that opened in Spokane, earned $3.7 million and finished at No. 8. In its third week of national release, “The Usual Suspects” has earned a total of $5.7 million.

The bright spot for Singer concerns the film’s gradual release: Playing in just 506 locations nationwide, “The Usual Suspects” earned the week’s highest per-location average: $7,367 to $4,949 for “Dangerous Minds” (1,594 locations) and $3,151 for “Mortal Kombat” (2,630 locations).

“Batman Forever” earned another $1.2 million, upping its summer-high, 12-week total to $181.2 million.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo