According to conventional wisdom, August is the month when kids have already become saturated with movie fare and are planning to return to school. It has never been a big month for the box office. That makes the $47-million success of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby all the more surprising. "I think this summer is going to really end on a high note," Exhibitor Relations chief Paul Dergarabedian told today's (Tuesday) Los Angeles Daily News. "There is a winning combination out there right now and audiences are really responding to the diversity of these films," he added. The newspaper observed that grosses this summer have surpassed last summer's in 18 out of the last 20 weekends -- last weekend's total was 18 percent ahead of last year's comparable weekend -- and prospects continue to look bright for the coming weeks with the debut of World Trade Center on Wednesday and Snakes on a Plane on Aug. 18.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Sony, $47,042,215, (New); 2. Barnyard, Paramount, $15,820,864, (New); 3. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Disney, $11,001,686, 5 Wks. ($379,699,644); 4. Miami Vice, Universal, $10,227,880, 2 Wks. ($46,284,665); 5. The Descent, Lionsgate, $8,911,330, (New); 6. John Tucker Must Die, 20th Century Fox, $6,150,596, 2 Wks. ($28,723,356); 7. Monster House, Sony, $6,058,649, 3 Wks. ($57,010,414); 8. The Ant Bully, Warner Bros., $3,892,443, 2 Wks. ($18,152,994); 9. You, Me and Dupree, Universal, $3,643,430, 4 Wks. ($66,822,635); 10. The Night Listener, Miramax, $3,554,134, (New).

Although it has a reputation among some as a tasteless, preservative-laden, overly processed white bread -- and may have been sought out as the primary sponsor of Will Ferrell's character in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby because of that reputation -- Wonder Bread representatives put out a news release on Monday saying that it was pleased to have bought a product-placement position in the movie. "We loved the film," Devery Holmes of NMA Entertainment and Marketing, which made the deal for Wonder Bread, said in a statement. "The all-American feel, NASCAR, comedy at its finest. It's a fun, summer-event film." She noted that NASCAR's official sponsors were given first dibs on being the Ferrell character's primary sponsor but all turned down the offer.

Focus Features, the arthouse unit of Universal Pictures that achieved success with The Constant Gardener and Brokeback Mountain, said Monday that it will release the Iraq war documentary The Ground Truth in theaters on September 15, just 11 days before the release of the DVD. The documentary reportedly focuses on soldiers engaging in what are described as "indiscriminate killings" in Iraq, the feelings of guilt that they experience, and their difficulties readjusting upon returning home. A blurb for the movie on the Focus site says that the war itself represents "a prelude for the even more challenging battles fought by the soldiers returning home -- with personal demons, an uncomprehending public, and an indifferent government." The short theatrical release of the movie will be followed on Oct. 11 by screenings in homes, churches, hospitals, libraries and other community centers to mark the four-year anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion. Asked about concerns by exhibitors about the diminishing window betweeen the time films are released in theaters and the time they are released on DVD, Focus CEO James Schamus told Reuters that the distribution plans for Truth are unique. "I think people understand this is a very special situation," he said.

Santa Monica, CA-based IMedia International Inc. has signed an agreement with the New York Daily News and The Dallas Morning News to distribute Hollywood Preview, a CD-ROM, in their Sunday editions. The free disc will include movie previews, celebrity interviews, music samples, games and advertisements. "This brings sight, sound and motion to the newspaper," IMedia Chief Executive David MacEachern told today's (Monday) Los Angeles Times. About 1.4 million CDs will be included in the two newspapers beginning in October, and McEachern said that he hopes to raise that figure to more 10 million by the end of next year. Bernie Heller, advertising chief for the Dallas newspaper, called the deal "a gamble" and noted that he could not predict how well it would pay off. "But so far it looks really good."

Award-winning German/Turkish director Fatih Akin is being investigated for wearing a T-shirt with a swastika on it in violation of a German law barring the display of Nazi regalia or symbols, according to German press reports. Akin, whose film Head On won the Berlin Film Festival's top prize in 2004, was reportedly wearing the T-shirt to protest American policy in Iraq. It sported the word "Bush," with the letter "s" replaced by a swastika. Police launched their investigation after receiving a complaint from an unidentified citizen who had seen Akin wearing the shirt in a newspaper. Akin told the German daily Deutsche Welle: "You have to look into the context. ... The swastika is not there on its own, but as part of the word, 'Bush.' One would have to be pretty stupid, not to understand that."

Little Green Footballs, the blog that originally questioned the authenticity of the documents used in Dan Rather's 60 Minutes II report about President Bush's military service, has exposed a Reuters photo showing black smoke rising over Beirut as a fake. The photo appeared in numerous newspapers and television news programs with the caption "Smoke billows from burning buildings destroyed during an overnight Israeli air raid on Beirut's suburbs." Charles Johnson, who runs the blog, showed how the original photo was doctored. Unlike CBS, which waited nearly two weeks to respond to Johnson's accusations, Reuters wasted no time pulling the photo and firing the photographer, Adnan Hajj.

NBC, which extended the Today show to a third hour in many markets six years ago, may add a fourth hour, Daily Variety reported today (Tuesday). If an additional hour is tacked on, it would bounce Martha Stewart's show Martha, which currently occupies the time period in many markets, and put it into competition with ABC's The View in other markets. Meanwhile, plans by the Today show to introduce new co-host Meredith Vieira with a profile feature that would include her work on The View and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire appeared dicey Monday after ABC said that it would not allow NBC to air clips from those two shows, according to Broadcasting & Cable magazine. "So much for professional courtesy," commented B&C editor J. Max Robins.

TV's domestic diva, Martha Stewart, has agreed to pay a fine of about $195,000 to settle charges of civil insider trading with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The figure represented the amount of losses she avoided from her insider trading of ImClone stock -- $45,673 -- a fine calculated at three times that amount, plus interest. In addition, her broker, Peter Bacanovic, formerly with Merrill Lynch, agreed to pay a penalty of about $75,000. She also agreed not to serve as a director of a public company for five years. In a statement, Stewart said, "This brings closure to a personal matter and my personal nightmare has come to an end." Stewart recently appeared in her own version of The Apprentice and currently has her own talk show, Martha.

When ABC starts making some of its programming available again on the Internet, it will be using a technologically improved broadband player, the network said Monday. Technical details about the player were not disclosed, but developers continue to make enhancements to streaming video players to avoid some of the jumpiness, grain, and distortions that have commonly plagued online streaming video in the past. ABC said that users will not be able to skip commercials (but they will be able to skip segments of the programs) but that it intends to make the ad breaks more interactive.

Confirming speculation that has appeared in virtually every major British newspaper for days, Charles Allen, the head of Britain's leading commercial network ITV, announced today that he is resigning effective Oct. 1. He will be replaced on an interim basis by John Cresswell, ITV's finance director. Although credited with bringing ITV into the digital age, Allen was criticized for lacking a barometer for effective programming, reflected by a plunge in both ratings and revenue. (ITV's audience share was 28.5 percent in July 2000 and only 16.3 percent in July 2006.) ITV said in a statement today (Tuesday): "The search for a permanent successor is starting immediately and headhunters are being appointed."

NBC said Monday that it plans to broadcast its warts-and-all movie about the turbulent lives of the one-time three child stars of the TV series Diff'rent Strokes on Sept. 4. Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges, two of the three, served as consultants on the show. The third, Dano Plato, committed suicide in 1999 by intentionally overdosing on drugs, a day after appearing on Howard Stern's radio show and maintaining that she had been drug-free for 10 years and had never been happier.