By the Numbers

By R. Kinsey Lowe

Dec. 2, 2003 12 AM PT

Weekend box office

Because of the difficulty of making precise calculations, from thousands of theater totals, even based on nearly complete figures for most films, the top two films wound up so close that their Friday-through-Sunday totals amounted to a statistical tie. With a three-day tally of $24.5 million, Universal’s “Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat” emerged Monday as the technical winner (by roughly $180,000) over Disney’s No. 2 “The Haunted Mansion,” which took in $24.3 million. Over the five-day Wednesday-Sunday period, however, the opening of “Mansion” beat the second weekend of “Cat” with $34 million versus $32.9 million.

Farther down the list, when Monday figures came in, “Bad Santa” moved up and shoved “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” out of the No. 5 slot it held on Sunday, with $12.3 million versus $12 million.

“Elf,” meanwhile, remains atop the nice list as the season’s biggest surprise hit with solid grosses -- $31 million five-day and $21.6 million three-day -- over the Thanksgiving moviegoing period. In its fourth weekend, business was actually up 16% for the Will Ferrell comedy, and its total stands at $129 million.

-- R. Kinsey Lowe

*--* MOVIE 3-DAY GROSS TOTAL (MILL.) VENUES AVERA WEEKS GE PER VENUE

1Dr. Seuss’ The $24.5 $75.8 3,467 $7,055 2 Cat in the Hat (Universal)

2The Haunted $24.3 $34.0 3,122 $7,777 1 Mansion (Buena Vista)

3Elf $21.6 $129.0 3,202 $6,761 4 (New Line)

4Gothika $12.9 $41.3 2,382 $5,402 2 (Warner Bros.)

5Bad Santa $12.3 $16.8 2,005 $6,131 1 (Dimension)

6Master and $12.0 $66.6 2,703 $4,458 3 Commander (Fox)

7The Missing $10.8 $15.2 2,756 $3,931 1 (Sony/Revolution)

8Timeline $8.4 $12.4 2,787 $3,029 1 (Paramount)

9Love Actually $8.2 $43.4 1,714 $4,795 4 (Universal)

10Brother Bear $4.9 $77.7 2,034 $2,395 6 (Buena Vista)