Entertainment analysts were continuing to shake their heads over the dismal performance of the highly hyped "reality movie," The Real Cancún, over the weekend. In a column choking with schadenfreude, New York Daily News columnist Jack Mathews said that the box-office results represented "a staggering failure" and added: "It's not nice to savor other peoples' failures, but the idea of movie theaters being invaded by R-rated versions of reality TV shows is a SARS scare in its own right." Final figures indicated that, despite forecasts by New Line executives that the film would benefit from word-of-mouth, the movie actually did worse on Sunday than the studio had estimated, concluding the weekend with just $2.1 million at 2,261 screens -- a measly $933 per screen. Another flop was MGM's Douglas-family drama It Runs in the Family, which earned just $2.8 million. The box office race was won by Sony's killer thriller Identity, which garnered $16.2 million.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. Identity, Sony, $16,225,263, (New); 2. Anger Management, Sony, $15,006,174, 3 Wks. ($103,524,440); 3. Holes, Disney, $12,552,722, 2 Wks. ($36,378,174); 4. Malibu's Most Wanted, Warner Bros. $7,337,473, 2 Wks. ($23,840,528); 5. Confidence, Lions Gate, $4,563,588, (New); 6. Bulletproof Monk, MGM, $4,402,635, 2 Wks. ($18,957,471); 7. What a Girl Wants, Warner Bros. $3,235,190, 4 Wks. ($32,853,869); 8. Phone Booth, 20th Century Fox, $3,007,474, 4 Wks. ($40,173,290); 9. It Runs in the Family, MGM, $2,804,441, (New); 10. The Real Cancún, New Line, $2,108,796, (New).

The 007 spoof Johnny English, starring Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) continued to amaze analysts as it topped the international box office for the third consecutive week with a gross of $13.3 million, to bring its overseas total to $77.1 million, according to figures from Screen International. The film performed best in the U.K., where it earned $3.6 million from 447 screens, or $8,054 per screen, dropping only 10 percent from the previous week.

Scottish actor Gerard Butler, who has leading roles in the upcoming Tomb Raider sequel, The Cradle of Life, as well as the movie version of Michael Crichton's Timeline, has been offered the title role in the film version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera, the Hollywood Reporter reported today (Tuesday), citing no sources. The trade paper said that Butler has not decided whether to accept because he is also considering offers for other films. Phantom, an off-again-on-again project for years was revived recently largely due to the success of Chicago. It is set to start shooting in October.

Because of SARS fears, Miramax has decided to relocate Shall We Dance?, starring Jennifer Lopez and Richard Gere, to Winnipeg, Manitoba from Toronto, Screen International reported on its website today (Tuesday). The British trade paper said that Miramax execs had taken their cue from the World Health Organization, which issued a travel advisory on April 23 cautioning travelers about non-essential travel to Toronto, Hong Kong or the Guangdong province of China during the SARS outbreak.

Hollywood studio representatives in China are expressing concern that the decision of the government to shut down movie theaters in Beijing because of the SARS epidemic will be repeated in other cities, Daily Variety reported today (Tuesday). The trade paper observed that film festivals scheduled for May and June, where much international buying and selling take place, have also been canceled because of the outbreak.

NBC News President Neal Shapiro personally rebuked correspondent Ashleigh Banfield Monday for her remarks at Kansas State University last Thursday in which she accused the networks of presenting a "glorious and wonderful" portrayal of the war in Iraq, the Hollywood Reporter reported today, citing unnamed sources. [Banfield's entire address can be heard at .] The trade paper said that after Shapiro had "bawled her out," she "promised, in effect, not to do it again." The Canadian-born Banfield has had an up-and-down career at NBC News, receiving strong praise for her work during the World Trade Center attack, then given a full hour on MSNBC for a primetime program called Region in Conflict, in which she dyed her blonde hair to report on conditions in the Middle East. Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh, in a column posted on his Internet site , remarked: "The fact of the matter is that when she had her own show, nobody watched it. ... She got more news coverage on her hair color than she ever got for doing her job. ... Well, Ashleigh, there may be some openings for you over at al-Jazeera."

Meanwhile, Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera has fired a broadside at his former employers, MSNBC, for conducting "a 'Get Geraldo' campaign" against him. Writing on his website , Rivera suggested that the campaign was being led by MSNBC personalities Joe Scarborough and Keith Olbermann, whom he referred to only as "a neo-Nazi ex-congressman and a psycho ex-sportscaster." He accused them of "using my sand drawing [during a report about the Iraq war] to destroy a 33-year career far more distinguished then anything to which either of that hapless pair can aspire." Rivera maintained that his drawing, which the Pentagon indicated might have revealed his position with U.S. troops to the enemy, amounted only to an "inadvertent technical violation of the Pentagon's embedment policies."

Satellite-delivered NBA TV plans to begin offering two hours of daily basketball programming in HDTV, the high-definition format, beginning next Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported today (Tuesday). The decision is expected to boost sales of HDTV sets, which not only provide clearer pictures of the game, but also allow viewers to choose camera angles and stop the action for instant replays. Only about 5 percent of Americans currently own HDTV sets.

Hoping to reverse the downward trend of its Oscar ratings, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday that the 2004 ceremonies will take place on Feb. 29, with nominations mailed out the day after the New Year's holiday. The academy said that it is moving up the date by three weeks as part of a two-year-"experiment." In an interview with USA Today, the organization's executive director, Bruce Davis, remarked that the move will show whether "Oscar shows are like pizzas: better the sooner you get them."

Predictions that ratings for the Monica Lewinsky-hosted Mr. Personality would plummet after the initial curiosity was no longer a factor appeared to be borne out Monday night as the show dropped from an 8.3/12 last week to a 5.9/8 the second week, a 29 percent slide. CBS continued to dominate the night, with its Everybody Loves Raymond recording the highest ratings, a 13.3/19, followed by CSI: Miami with a 12.9/20.