Weekend box office

Whether it’s a blip or evidence of something more serious, at least in terms of movies seen by paying audiences in theaters, Hollywood closed the calendar year 2005 down 5.18% in total box office revenue to $8.95 billion, Exhibitor Relations Co. reported Monday in the tracking service’s final numbers for the year. Attendance dropped 7.13% to 1.41 billion tickets sold.

It was the first time in more than 40 years that movie attendance has declined three years in a row, according to Motion Picture Assn. of America statistics. Moviegoing last year was down 12.2% from the modern attendance record of 1.606 billion that Exhibitor Relations recorded for 2002.

MOVIE (STUDIO): 1. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Buena Vista)

4-DAY GROSS (MILLIONS): $33.7

TOTAL (MILLIONS): $225.7

VENUES: 3,853

AVERAGE PER VENUE: $8,750

WEEKS: 4

*

MOVIE (STUDIO): 2. King Kong (Universal)

4-DAY GROSS (MILLIONS): $31.8

TOTAL (MILLIONS): $175.6

VENUES: 3,627

AVERAGE PER VENUE: $8,775

WEEKS: 3

*

MOVIE (STUDIO): 3. Fun With Dick and Jane (Sony)

4-DAY GROSS (MILLIONS): $21.0

TOTAL (MILLIONS): $64.6

VENUES: 3,056

AVERAGE PER VENUE: $6,880

WEEKS: 2

*

MOVIE (STUDIO): 4 Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (Fox)

4-DAY GROSS (MILLIONS): $18.9

TOTAL (MILLIONS): $54.7

VENUES: 3,211

AVERAGE PER VENUE: $5,873

WEEKS: 2

*

MOVIE (STUDIO): 5 Rumor Has It... (Warner Bros.)

4-DAY GROSS (MILLIONS): $11.8

TOTAL (MILLIONS): $26.9

VENUES: 2,815

AVERAGE PER VENUE: $4,188

WEEKS: 2

*

MOVIE (STUDIO): 6 The Family Stone (Fox)

4-DAY GROSS (MILLIONS): $10.3

TOTAL (MILLIONS): $46.3

VENUES: 2,464

AVERAGE PER VENUE: $4,179

WEEKS: 3

*

MOVIE (STUDIO): 7 Memoirs of a Geisha (Sony)

4-DAY GROSS (MILLIONS): $10.2

TOTAL (MILLIONS): $30.6

VENUES: 1,547

AVERAGE PER VENUE: $6,604

WEEKS: 4

*

MOVIE (STUDIO): 8 The Ringer (Fox Searchlight)

4-DAY GROSS (MILLIONS): $8.1

TOTAL (MILLIONS): $21.7

VENUES: 1,853

AVERAGE PER VENUE: $4,345

WEEKS: 2

*

MOVIE (STUDIO): 9 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros.)

4-DAY GROSS (MILLIONS): $7.6

TOTAL (MILLIONS): $277.1

VENUES: 2,316

AVERAGE PER VENUE: $3,297

WEEKS: 7

*

MOVIE (STUDIO): 10 Munich (Universal)

4-DAY GROSS (MILLIONS): $6.4

TOTAL (MILLIONS): $15.9

VENUES: 532

AVERAGE PER VENUE: $12,099

WEEKS: 2

Source: Exhibitor Relations Co.

Los Angeles Times