Box-office receipts barely dribbled in over the weekend for Will Ferrell's basketball spoof Semi-Pro. Although it beat all other contenders for the top spot, the movie wound up with only $15.3 million in ticket sales, yet another disappointment for its ailing distributor, New Line Cinema, which last week learned that it was being absorbed by Warner Bros. Many box-office analysts had predicted that the movie would earn $25-30 million, somewhat below the $33 million earned by Ferrell's 2007 ice-skating comedy Blades of Glory. Meanwhile, last weekend's winner, Sony's Vantage Point, starring Dennis Quaid, slid to No. 2 with just $13 million, while Paramount's fairy-tale film The Spiderwick Chronicles slipped to third place with $8.8 million. The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson, opened in fourth place with $8.3 million. The only other film to open wide, Penelope, starring Christina Ricci, debuted in eighth place with $4 million. Overall, the top 12 films grossed just $81 million, down a whopping 25 percent from the comparable weekend a year ago.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. Semi-Pro, $15.3 million; 2. Vantage Point, $13 million; 3. The Spiderwick Chronicles, $8.8 million; 4. The Other Boleyn Girl, $8.3 million; 5. Jumper, $7.6 million; 6. Step Up 2 The Streets, $5.7 million; 7. Fool's Gold, $4.7 million; 8. Penelope, $4 million; 9. No Country For Old Men, $4 million; 10. Juno, $3.4 million.

At least 75 percent of New Line's staff of 600 are likely to be fired in the coming months despite assurances by Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes on Friday that he wants to retain as many New Line employees as possible, Daily Variety reported today (Monday), citing an "emerging consensus." The trade publication said that New Line is also expected to shut down its offices in New York and its headquarters in West Hollywood, moving remaining operations to the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. Speaking to New Line employees by satellite on Friday, Bewkes said that Co-Chairmen Bob Shaye and Michael Lynn are "still here," but "for everyone's sake, they need to step back from the process."

In just one week, the trailer for Paramount's upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has been viewed more than 200 million times worldwide, according to Gerry Rich, Paramount's president of worldwide marketing. "The response has been sensational and it shows what technology can do when you have material that is so appealing to audiences," Rich told the Associated Press. Harry Knowles, who runs the website AintItCool.com, told A.P., "It seems that everyone is extremely excited that there's a new 'Indiana Jones' film. The excitement for it is palpable. It's much more aggressively anticipated than anything else that's coming out right now." The film is due to be released on May 22.

The Motion Picture Association of America does not want the FCC to hinder Internet service providers' ability to "manage" the flow of bandwidth-heavy downloads on their systems. In a filing with the commission, the studio group said, "Allowing Internet-service providers to address capacity and piracy abuses is the best way of providing consumers with a dynamic, content-rich broadband experience." As reported by Broadcasting & Cable magazine, NBCU said in a separate filing that a "tidal wave of unlawful conduct by BitTorrent users" has worked "to the clear detriment of the majority of consumers."

ESPN will partner with corporate sibling Walt Disney Studios and the Creative Artists talent agency to make theatrical films with sports themes, the New York Times reported today (Monday). "We see this as a new way to reach sports fans and engage them," Keith Clinkscales, ESPN's senior vice president for content development, told the newspaper, adding: "A lot of people who spend time being engaged in ESPN also spend a lot of time going to the movies." Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook said that the partnership "represents a big score for sports fans and moviegoers alike," and noted that the studio has produced several sports-themed hits, including Remember the Titans and The Rookie.

Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard is likely to draw protesters when she begins shooting a new film in Chicago next week because of year-old remarks about the 9/11 attacks in which she appeared to contend that the U.S. staged the destruction of the World Trade Center towers because they needed to be modernized and "it was a lot more expensive, that work, than destroying them." In an interview for French television that was originally broadcast a year ago, she suggested that the public was "lied to" about the attacks. Cotillard has been cast in Public Enemies, which costars Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. In an interview with the Hollywood Today website, 9/11 fireman Mike Lennon, who made a documentary about the disaster, warned that Cotillard's remarks "could be a powder keg issue for thousands of firefighters and the families of victims who may picket her next film with my full support."

Oprah's Big Give turned out to be just that for ABC Sunday night, as Oprah Winfrey's first regular primetime TV show debuted with the highest numbers of the night. The reality show, in which contestants are sent across the country to give away money and "change the lives of total strangers," captured a 9.8 rating and a 15 share (15.55 million viewers). It drew mixed reaction from critics. "It's inspiring to see people devote their time and energy to something larger than themselves, placing themselves into utterly foreign environments and selflessly soliciting help," Joe Caramanica wrote in The Los Angeles Times. Alessandra Stanley observed in the New York Times: "The series is both genuinely affecting and gratingly affected, a made-for-TV exploitation of hardship and bathos that nevertheless does tug at the heartstrings. Oprah's Big Give is not as cheesy as a lot of other reality shows. Ms. Winfrey is above all a class act." But Maureen Ryan asked in the Chicago Tribune: "How many of those corporate donations were lined up in advance and came from companies that were eager to be part of a prime-time Oprah endeavor? There's one segment shot at a Target store that might as well be a commercial for the retailer. And it's strange that the staples of reality television -- fighting and the ejection of an unsuccessful player -- come to the fore in a show that's supposed to be about altruism." And Tom Shales in the Washington Post summed up: "The unsavory aura of exploitation is hard to ignore."

Shelley Ross, executive producer of CBS's The Early Show, has been meeting with CBS executives following a report that appeared in the New York Post last week saying that her brusque temperament has caused a major morale problem among the show's staff, published reports said over the weekend. The New York Times, citing executives with knowledge of the situation, reported on Saturday that it was likely that Ross would be fired within the next few weeks. The Post said that she was so upset about its report that she didn't come to work on Friday. The website TV Newser said that when it asked a CBS News spokesperson declined to comment when asked whether Ross had already been let go.

Few people are watching clips of television shows and other videos on cell phones, according to a report by research firm Diffusion Group reported in today's (Monday) New York Times. "All our research keeps pointing at a lack of interest among consumers in viewing video on the mobile phone," according to the report's author, Michael Greeson. The report also noted that only about 10 percent of adults who have PCs capable of downloading TV shows and movies actually have done so and only 1 percent use any of the downloading services frequently.

News Corp-controlled Sky television is accelerating the process of remastering classic British films in the Blu-ray high-definition system, not only to make them available to consumers on disk but also to make them more suitable for the movie channels on its satellite service, the BBC reported today (Monday). Michael Caine, who starred in several of the films being restored, including Zulu and The Italian Job, told the BBC, "I love HD ... of course, it's very unforgiving, especially on young beautiful ladies, but thank God I'm old, I don't care."

The Dutch government is considering a possible ban on a film that compares the Koran with Hitler's Mein Kampf, the Dutch newspaper Telegraaf reported today (Monday). Word that the 10-minute film, by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, might air on several television stations in the Netherlands has already touched off demonstrations by Islamic groups in Afghanistan, who have called for the removal of Dutch troops from the country. A trailer for the film posted on YouTube shows one unidentified man commenting that the Koran depicts the prophet Muhammad, who allegedly personally beheaded hundreds of his enemies, as the role model for current terrorists. In 2004 Theo Van Gogh, who produced another Dutch film critical of Islam, was murdered by an Islamic militant.