The Sum of All Fears sold the biggest sum of movie tickets for the second week in a row, taking in an estimated $18.7 million. The "chick flick" Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood opened in second place with about $16.4 million. Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones slipped to third place with $13.9 million, while the Chris Rock-Anthony Hopkins starrer Bad Company tanked in its debut with just $10.5 million. Even though the box office was up about 8 percent from the comparable weekend a year ago, analysts expressed surprise that -- given May's outstanding performance -- the box office was not performing more robustly. "I think we're just in a lull," Exhibitor Relations chief Paul Dergarabedian told Reuters. "It's a little slow now, then some big movie will come along and set the world on fire again."

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations: 1. The Sum of All Fears, $18.7 million; 2. Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, $16.35 million; 3. Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones, $13.9 million; 4. Bad Company, $10.5 million; 5. Spider-Man, $10 million; 6. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, $9.4 million; 7. Undercover Brother, $7.3 million; 8. Insomnia, $5.9 million; 9. Enough, $3.6 million. 10. About a Boy, $2.7 million.

Although, with an additional $10 million, Spider-Man brought its six-week total to $370.1 million, making it the No. 5 film of all time, it appeared all but certain that it would not overtake Titanic as the top-grossing film of all time. Although Titanic had only reached $274.6 million by its sixth week, it continued to earn an average of $22.3 million for the next nine weeks, falling out of the top spot in its 16th week with a total of $530 million -- on its way to a final tally of $601 million.

After a highly publicized disposable cell phone turned out to be as jerry-rigged as E.T.'s, Universal has agreed to send $30 checks and a free DVD to about 1,000 people who won the phones as part of a promotion for the Jurassic Park III DVD that ended on May 17, according to the trade publication Videostore Magazine. A Universal spokesman said that Hop-On.com has been unable to deliver the phones in time for the promotion. However, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in April that, despite being highly touted in several leading publications, samples of the supposedly disposable phones, which were to retail for $30 (hence the refund amount), turned out to have the innards of those manufactured by Nokia, which cost about $250. The online publication StockPatrol.com further reported that after Universal and Hop-On announced their promotional deal last November, shares in the Garden Grove, CA-based company soared from a few cents to $1.50. They have now fallen to less than 30 cents. Although Hop-On has said that the sample phones were simply mock-ups, it has yet to come forward with a single disposable phone of its own manufacture. Moreover, despite recent claims that it has made multimillion-dollar deals with companies in Britain and Greece, it has not yet revealed where its production factory is and has never even received FCC approval to manufacture the phone, according to published reports.

Bob Pittman, credited with engineering the AOL merger with Time Warner, may be the next high-ranking executive of the company to step down, the New York Daily News reported today (Monday), citing several media analysts. Hal Vogel of Vogel Capital Management told the newspaper: "That he departs earlier rather than later is a given. It shouldn't surprise anyone." Although analysts dismissed a rumor circulated by Internet gossip Matt Drudge last week that Pittman would replace Michael Eisner as head of Disney, several agreed that his departure from AOL Time Warner could come quickly. "It's something that could easily happen this year," an unnamed media investor told the Daily News."This merger is a complete embarrassment to the Time Warner people."

Korean director Lee Sung-gang on Saturday won the top prize at the 26th Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France. Lee said that although his film, Mari Iyagi, employed digital animation techniques, he attempted to give it the look of a hand-rendered film. He is the first Korean ever to win the prestigious award. In accepting it, he commented: "I hope that this award can be a step toward Korea being considered as an equal of Japan and the United States in terms of originality of its animations."

Beginning last July, NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker attempted to lure David Letterman away from CBS by proposing that he host a one-hour talk show every weeknight except Thursday at 8:00 p.m., the New York Times reported today (Monday). The newspaper said that although Zucker declined to comment on the matter, it was confirmed by Rob Burnett, head of Letterman's Production Company, Worldwide Pants. "It was a very smart idea," Burnett told the Times, noting, however, that Letterman has always resisted the idea of switching to primetime TV. He said that he suggested that NBC give Jay Leno the 8:00 p.m. time period and move Letterman into the Tonight show time frame -- but that Zucker rejected the idea.

NBC dominated with the numbers -- just like the L.A. Lakers -- as the third game of the Lakers-Nets NBA Finals Sunday night averaged a 10.2 rating and a 16 share, leading the network to a slam-dunk victory over second-place CBS. Indeed, if it hadn't been for a big CBS win in the 7:00 hour when 60 Minutes crushed NBC's Dateline by a score of 8.3/15 to 4.8/9, CBS's numbers would have appeared about as weak as the Nets' offense for the rest of the night as it fell to third place, behind ABC in the 8:00 p.m. hour and to fourth place, behind Fox and ABC at 10:00 p.m. NBC won the night with an average 8.4/14, followed by CBS with a 5.8/10. ABC was third with a 4.7/8. Fox was fourth with a 4.3/7.

With interest keen in whether War Emblem would become a rare winner of the final segment of the Triple Crown by winning the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, viewers gave NBC its biggest ratings for any horse race in 10 years, the network reported Sunday. The Belmont telecast averaged a 9.2 rating and a 21 share, peaking for the race itself with a 12.5/28 as the 70-1 longshot Sarava won. Last year's Belmont scored a 4.9/13.

Thirty-two percent of the TV audience say they watch at least one of the network nightly newscasts regularly, about the same percentage who said they did two years ago, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. In report issued on Sunday, the Center indicated that following the Sept. 11 attacks, the audience for broadcast news had stabilized following years of decline. (Ten years ago, 66 percent of TV viewers said that they watched the networks' newscasts.) In an interview with the Associated Press on Sunday, Pew Research Center Director Andrew Kohut commented: "Increased interest in national news, and even some additional interest in international news, has helped stem the steady loss of network news viewers over the last decade."

Shares in Adelphia Communications appeared to be caught in an irreversible tailspin Friday as reports emerged that the company may have kept two sets of books and lied about its subscriber growth. Shares in the company, now being traded over-the-counter after being delisted from Nasdaq, closed Friday at 30 cents, down 54.5 percent from 66 cents. At mid-day today (Monday), they had dropped to 24 cents. Three years ago, they were trading at $86; at this time last year, they were trading at $42. Meanwhile, today's Wall Street Journal reported that Adelphia's board of directors on Friday fired Deloitte & Touche as its auditor, charging that it had not informed its audit committee of the alleged irregularities.

As expected, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has agreed to buy the Italian cable operator Telepiu from Vivendi Universal for $700 million in cash, plus $700 million of debt and merge it with his pay-TV operation Stream. (Only last January, Murdoch said that he was selling Stream to Vivendi.) Analysts applauded the deal, which will allow Vivendi to cut its massive debt.

MTV cut off sound to the press room during Kelly Osbourne's live performance of "Papa Don't Preach" at the MTV Movie Awards on June 1 so that reporters would not be able to hear her "sometimes weak, sometimes cracking voice," MSNBC.com reported today (Monday). Her voice was later enhanced before the awards show aired on MTV on June 6, according to the website, despite earlier boasts by the cable channel that she was singing "live." A source told MSNBC.com: "It's totally misleading, but MTV has a lot of money invested with the Osbournes and obviously wants to keep them happy."