Editing Murder by Numbers (section)

== Reception ==
=== Box office ===
The film was released April 19, 2002 in the United States and Canada and grossed $9.3 million in 2,663 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #3 at the box office.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3278210561/weekend/|title=Murder by Numbers (2002) - Weekend Box Office Results|access-date=2008-02-15|publisher=[[Box Office Mojo]]}}</ref> The film grossed a total of $56,714,147 worldwide &mdash; $31,945,749 in the United States and Canada and $24,768,398 in other territories.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3278210561/|title=Murder by Numbers (2002)|access-date=2008-02-15|publisher=[[Box Office Mojo]]}}</ref>

=== Critical reception ===
Reviews for the film were mixed-to-negative. The [[review aggregator]] website [[Rotten Tomatoes]] reported that 30% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 128 reviews, with an average rating of 5.30/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "A predictable [[police procedural]] that works better as a character study rather than a thriller."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1113638_murder_by_numbers |title=Murder by Numbers (2002) |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |publisher=[[Fandango Media|Fandango]] |access-date=September 23, 2020}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]], the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/murder-by-numbers |title=Murder by Numbers Reviews |website=[[Metacritic]] |publisher=[[CBS Interactive]] |access-date=2019-11-30}}</ref>

[[Roger Ebert]] awarded three stars out of a possible four, stating: "Bullock does a good job here of working against her natural likability, creating a character you'd like to like, and could like, if she weren't so sad, strange and turned in upon herself. She throws herself into police work not so much because she's dedicated as because she needs the distraction, needs to keep busy and be good to assure herself of her worth. As she draws the net closer, and runs into more danger and more official opposition, the movie more or less helplessly starts thinking to itself about that cliff above the sea, but at least the climax shows us that Bullock can stay in character no matter what."<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/murder-by-numbers-2002 |last= Ebert |first= Roger |author-link= Roger Ebert |date= April 19, 2002 |title= ''Murder by Numbers'' |publisher= www.rogerebert.com |access-date= December 14, 2015}}</ref>

[[A. O. Scott]], writing for ''[[The New York Times]]'', said that "much of this new Barbet Schroeder film -- a star vehicle for Sandra Bullock, who is also an executive producer -- follows well-worn paths of the cops-and-psycho-killer routine." He describes Haywood and Pendleton as "a pair of teenage Nietzsche-heads who might be appearing in a remake of [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s ''[[Rope (film)|Rope]]'' for [[The WB]] network." Scott adds,

<blockquote>The real surprise, given the secondhand material, is that not everything proceeds by rote in ''Murder by Numbers'', which opens today [19 April 2002] nationwide. The rickety structure of the movie's main plot sustains some clammy and fascinating psychological inquiry, and one suspects that, as in ''Single White Female'', Mr. Schroeder's interest is less in the story than in the possibilities it affords for exercising his perverse, chilly curiosity about power, intimacy and the varieties of human distress. This movie is most interesting as a study of two parallel relationships, neither one primarily sexual (though sexuality is the subtext of one and the half-accidental consequence of the other), but both saturated with enough longing, envy, tenderness and loathing to make actual sex a bit redundant."<ref name= "AOS">{{cite news |last= Scott |first= A. O. |author-link= A. O. Scott |title= ''Murder By Numbers'' (2002) - FILM REVIEW; Power, Intimacy and the Varieties of Human Distress |work= [[The New York Times]] |date= April 19, 2002 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9404E5DE143FF93AA25757C0A9649C8B63 |access-date= December 14, 2015}}</ref></blockquote>

Scott also remarks briefly on "the scene in which [Cassie] is attacked by an angry baboon. The baboon, at least, is unexpected, though also inexplicable."<ref name= "AOS" />