Behavior: Exorcist Fever

In a quiet Beverly Hills, Calif., neighborhood, residents have been awakened at dawn as thousands of people gather for an 8 a.m. showing at a theater seating 1,450. Every day 5,000 moviegoers stand in the long queue wrapped around the Sack 57 Cinema in Boston. Four Manhattan theaters have lines extending for blocks from noon to midnight. In its first five weeks, The Exorcist (TIME, Jan. 14-21) has rung up more than $10 million at box office cash registers in 20 cities. Glowing —and gloating—Warner Bros, executives predict that it will easily top the alltime moneymaker The Godfather, which grossed more...

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