‘Big Fish’ whopper?

Something smelled fishy at the North American box office this weekend.

In a claim disputed by several studios, Tim Burton’s fable “Big Fish” reeled in the No. 1 spot in its first weekend of wide release by selling $14.5-million worth of tickets, according to estimates issued Sunday by its distributor, Columbia Pictures.

But that sounded like a whopper to others in Hollywood, particularly New Line Cinema, which said its reigning champ, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” earned more. The studio reported a $14.1-million tally for its hobbit tale, and it calculated that “Big Fish” earned about $13.7 million.

“They seem a little high,” New Line distribution President David Tuckerman said of Columbia’s estimate. Executives from two other studios, who declined to be identified, agreed with New Line’s assessment, with one observing that Columbia was “a little too aggressive.”

Columbia’s distribution chief, Rory Bruer, defended the numbers as “reasonable estimates.”

Time will tell. The studios will issue more accurate data today, and it’s not uncommon for rankings lower on the chart to change when actual numbers for Sunday business come in. It’s rare, however, for a studio to acknowledge a miscalculation involving bragging rights for the top spot.

What was not in doubt was the successful expansion of “Big Fish,” which had been playing in limited release for the previous four weekends. With a cast featuring Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney and Billy Crudup, the film revolves around a son’s attempts to reconcile with his ailing father by getting to the bottom of his colorful tales.

The audience for the $70-million movie was split evenly between males and females and between those over and under 30, Bruer noted. Now playing in 2,406 theaters, up from 125 last week when it ranked No. 12, it has grossed $24.1 million.

As for “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” it has now earned $312.2 million after four weekends. It passed $300 million Friday, outpacing its 2002 predecessor, “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” by 10 days. However, the new film lost 50% of its audience from last week, a steeper drop than suffered by either “The Two Towers” (41%) or 2001’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” (30%) in their fourth weekends.

The top 10 contained two new releases: “My Baby’s Daddy” opened at No. 6 with $7.8 million. “Chasing Liberty,” which stars pop singer Mandy Moore, opened at No. 7 with $6 million.