‘Stuart Little’ a Mighty Mouse at Box Office

“Stuart Little” remained the big cheese at the North American box office, selling about $11.5 million worth of tickets during the weekend, according to studio estimates issued Sunday.

The talking-mouse picture has spent three of its four weeks at No. 1, with an exception during the Christmas weekend when “Any Given Sunday” ruled the roost. After 24 days in release, “Stuart Little” has now earned about $95.6 million, and should pass the century mark next Friday or Saturday, said a spokesman for the film’s distributor, Columbia Pictures.

The top 10 contained two films that expanded into wide release, “Magnolia” (New Line) at No. 7 and “Snow Falling on Cedars” (Universal) at No. 10. Dropping out were box office weaklings Fox’s “Anna and the King” (down one to No. 11) and Universal’s “Man on the Moon” (down three to No. 12).

“The Talented Mr. Ripley” (Paramount) was No. 2 with $9.8 million, followed by “The Green Mile” (Warner Bros.) with $9.7 million, “Any Given Sunday” (Warner Bros.) with $9.0 million and “Galaxy Quest” (DreamWorks) with $8.3 million; all were up one place each from last weekend.

According to Exhibitor Relations Co., which collects the studios’ estimates, the top 12 movies this weekend grossed a combined $83.6 million, down 24% from last weekend, but up 9% from the year-ago weekend. Next weekend sees the sci-fi picture “Supernova” bowing in theaters, while “The Hurricane” and “Girl, Interrupted” will expand to wide release.

“Toy Story 2” (Disney/Pixar) fell four places to No. 6 with $7.5 million, taking its 52-day total to $220 million. The film passed the animated “Aladdin” ($217 million) to become Disney’s second-biggest cartoon (after “The Lion King” with $301 million) and the company’s third-biggest overall (behind “The Lion King” and $277-million grosser “The Sixth Sense”), a spokesman said.

“Magnolia,” a three-hour ensemble drama starring Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore and William H. Macy, jumped to No. 7 with $6.6 million from 1,038 screens. It was No. 34 last weekend on nine screens. Its per-screen average of $6,359 was the highest in the top 10, followed by “Stuart Little” with a $3,860 average from 2,979 screens.

The other expansion was “Snow Falling on Cedars,” based on the bestselling David Guterson novel about a murder trial and racial bigotry in the Pacific Northwest. The film, starring Ethan Hawke and James Cromwell, rose 41 places to No. 10 with $4 million after boosting its screen count to 1,150 from three. The per-screen average for the critically maligned drama was a modest $3,478.