What was the box office of The Fifth Element on its first weekend?

F: Tom, have you seen The Fifth Element?
M: Yes. I think the pictures are beautiful. And I know some reviewer observed that this movie might actually be a milestone in movie making. It took US $17 million on its first weekend, a more than respectable total.
F:  Oh? They really said so ? But I think it’s storyless movie, although it’s a big budget one. Don’t you think it resembles video games? The crafted aliens, a deafening sound track, and striking minor characters-- it has no coherent story to hang it all on.
M: I quite agree with you. Story is the soul of a meaningful film, the key to involving the audience emotionally.
F:  I used to like Steven Spielberg. His work had always been a balance of story and technical things. But in his most recent movie, The Lost World, the sequel to Jurassic Park, the story is almost an afterthought to the spectacle. The dinosaurs are rediscovered and again eat a lot of people, while character development hardly gets a look in. The film simply relies on action to keep the drama going.
M: But thanks to a US $40 million marketing campaign, The Lost world broke all box office records for its first four days and Steven Spielberg was tipped to earn from the movie far more than the US $300 million he collected from Jurassic Park. The author of the original novel, Michael Crichton, was predicted to earn US $20 million on his share of the profits.
F:  So the success of such films is measured simply on their profit margin. Fillmmaking is not considered as a form of art now.