‘Die Hard’ Begins Its Own Tide : Movies: Bruce Willis vehicle punches in with an estimated $21.2 million, while submarine saga slips to about $12 million.

In what looks to be an indicator of the dog-eat-dog competitive nature of the approaching summer, “Die Hard With a Vengeance” starring Bruce Willis racked up more than $21 million at the movie box office over the weekend, leaving an ebbing “Crimson Tide” in its wake.

And even the decidedly modest debut of Billy Crystal’s “Forget Paris” managed to incur casualties among its romantic comedy rivals.

Still, when the dust settles, this apparently will prove to have been the best pre-Memorial Day weekend ever with business up around 25% from last year.

John Krier of Exhibitor Relations Co., the box-office tracking firm, said Sunday that 1995 is finally pulling ahead of last year. And business for the upcoming four-day holiday weekend is expected to roughly double this weekend’s total of $60 million to $65 million.

The third “Die Hard,” which according to published reports may have cost as much as $90 million to produce, picked up an estimated $21.2 million in its first weekend on 2,525 screens--about $8,400 a theater. That’s just a shade under the second installment’s $21.7-million opening over the Fourth of July weekend in 1990.

In all the bombast and bomb blasts, Disney’s “Crimson Tide” fell 38% to about $12 million--around $4,800 a print--a week after it had the year’s biggest opening, raking in $18.6 million and winning accolades for breaking a long drought at the movie houses. The submarine adventure had been expected to take some heat this week from “Die Hard 3,” but Disney had clearly been hoping for better damage containment.

The 10-day total for “Tide” is an impressive $34 million. With great exit surveys, both action films are expected to withstand the holiday onslaught.

Twentieth Century Fox, which has domestic and Japanese rights to “Hard 3,” was buoyed by its word-of-mouth potential. According to Tom Sherak, distribution chief at the studio, while attendance was strongly young male for his movie, all demographic segments, regardless of age or sex, gave the movie definite thumbs up. That could sustain “Hard 3” against Mel Gibson’s period adventure “Braveheart” and the futuristic action film “Johnny Mnemonic,” both of which open for Memorial Day.

Whether the third in the series reaches the $116 million grossed by the second “Die Hard” remains to be seen.

The action din tended to drown out most of the other movies in the market. “Forget Paris” grossed close to $6 million on 1,609 screens. That was enough to give the film “a foothold” in the marketplace, says Columbia/Tri-Star distribution head Jeff Blake.

“Paris’ ” third-place finish took a bite out of “While You Were Sleeping,” which still managed $4.7 million (fourth place) and is rounding the $50-million mark. But “Paris” made audiences forget “French Kiss,” which was expected to drop about 40% to $3.9 million for fifth place and has taken in under $25 million to date.

The family audience refused to come out for Warners’ well-reviewed “A Little Princess,” which could only claim about $2 million for the weekend on about 1,342 screens, tying for sixth position. It was not helped by Saturday night and Sunday matinee sneak previews of “Casper.” Nikki Rocco, senior vice president of distribution at Universal said Saturday evening attendance for “Casper” was about 80% at 618 screens across the country, a good omen for the coming Memorial Day debut of the live-action special effects film.

“Friday” (tied for sixth) and “Bad Boys” (ninth) garnered $2 million and $1.3 million, respectively. The former has grossed about $20 million, the latter, close to $60 million. Miramax’s disappointing “The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill” plummeted 44% to $1.55 million, finishing eighth, and “My Family” also lost most of its audience, dropping to $1 million and trailing among the Top 10.

Final weekend box-office figures will be released today.