Studios and entertainment analysts were doing some Monday morning quarterbacking yesterday over the failure of New Line's Snakes on a Plane to live up to expectations. Although it had been predicted to earn around $30 million -- largely as a result of "viral" Internet hype -- it ended up slinking off with about half that amount -- $15.2 million, including its earnings from 10:00 p.m. screenings on Thursday. Daily Variety, which was among those predicting a $30-million take, said that the results revealed "that what's important to the Internet crowd is not necessarily of interest to the general population." Similarly, Lew Harris, editorial director for Disney-owned Movies.com, told the Associated Press, "The buzz starts feeding on itself. People then start thinking this is appealing to a larger audience than it was." Today's (Tuesday) Los Angeles Daily News pointed out that what was overlooked in all the industry hand-wringing over the disappointing performance of SoaP, was that Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest continued its remarkable performance, taking in an additional $5.2 million and becoming only the seventh movie in history to pass the $400-million mark. It also crossed the $500-million mark overseas to bring its worldwide gross to $922.7 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 Snakes on a Plane, New Line, $15,206,301, (New); 2. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Sony, $13,755,387, 3 Wks. ($114,341,263); 3. World Trade Center, Paramount, $10,901,350, 2 Wks. ($45,105,868); 4. Step Up, Disney, $10,157,605, 2 Wks. ($39,738,435); 5. Accepted, Universal, $10,023,835, (New); 6. Barnyard, Paramount, $7,581,622, 3 Wks. ($46,088,273); 7. Little Miss Sunshine, Fox Searchlight, $5,610,845, 4 Wks. ($12,692,059); 8. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Disney, $5,212,351, 7 Wks. ($401,253,092); 9. Material Girls, MGM, $4,603,121, (New); 10. Pulse, Weinstein Co. $3,519,889, 2 Wks. ($14,695,988).

Warner Bros. will produce an astounding 15 original movies a year under its Warner Premiere banner that will bypass theaters and go directly to DVD, the company announced Monday. Many of the films will be sequels, starting off with The Dukes of Hazzard II. In a statement, Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, said, "With Warner Premiere, we're creating an additional stream of new, high-quality, fan-ready DVDs that will be supported by top-notch marketing to help them stand out in the increasingly crowded marketplace." The studio indicated that some or all of the titles will simultaneously be released for downloading via the Internet.

Shares in Canada's biggest movie distributor, Motion Picture Distribution LP, plummeted 17 percent Monday on the Toronto Stock Exchange after analysts expressed alarm over the growing battle between former executives of the company and members of the company's board. Victor Loewy, who says he was forced out as chairman last month after refusing to fire two top executives as ordered by the board, is expected to announce Wednesday that he will launch a rival movie distribution company. Today's (Tuesday) Montreal Gazette said that no explanation for the dismissals was ever announced but that it was believe the trio were attempting to mount a management buyout. The newspaper noted that all of the company's deals with Hollywood studios are in jeopardy because they were all brokered by Loewy, who may already have lured New Line away from MPD.

Chris Cuomo will become a regular on ABC's Good Morning America, but he has apparently lost his bid to become co-anchor of the morning talk show with Diane Sawyer. Instead, he will become the news anchor of the program, while Robin Roberts, the previous GMA news anchor, will continue to co-host with Sawyer. There had been considerable speculation that either Cuomo, WABC-TV anchor Bill Ritter, or weekend GMA host Bill Weir would replace Charles Gibson as co-host of the program. Executive producer Jim Murphy held out the possibility that Cuomo might play a greater role on the program in the future. "I have great faith he's going to grow into a major player." Murphy told today's (Tuesday) New York Times. Cuomo will remain one of the rotating anchors of Primetime, which he cohosted with Sawyer for the first time two weeks ago.

Bryant Gumbel may feel that outgoing NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue keeps Gene Upshaw, the head of the players union, on a "leash," but the NFL apparently may be having "buyer's remorse" about hiring someone like Gumbel, who bites the hand that feeds him. Gumbel made the remark about Tagliabue and Upshaw during his closing remarks on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel last week, adding that Tagliabue had made "the docile head of the players union his personal pet." The former Today show host is scheduled to be the play-by-play announcer on eight late-season games to be carried on the NFL's cable network. In an interview with the Associated Press on Monday, Tagliabue called Gumbel's remarks "uninformed" and "inexcusable." Asked if Gumbel should remain the NFL's announcer, Tagliabue said that the NFL may be experiencing "buyer's remorse" and that Gumbel's comments "call into question his desire to do the job and to do it in a way that we in the NFL would expect it to be done." For his part, Gumbel told the A.P. that when he signed on for the job, no restrictions had been put on his ability to comment on what he sees on the field.

The number of gay characters appearing regularly in network TV series this fall will decrease to nine from last year's 10, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said Monday. Moreover, it observed, with shows like Will & Grace, Out of Practice and Crumbs going off the air, the characters that remain will have less prominent roles. In a statement, GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano said, "It's clear that the broadcast networks have a long way to go before they accurately reflect the diversity of their audience and our society."

It took only a single complaint from a British viewer to the British TV regulator OFCOM to cause Turner Broadcasting to pull out all of its classic Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera cartoons to see whether they contain smoking scenes. "We are going through the entire catalog," a Turner spokeswoman told Reuters on Monday. She acknowledged that the review had been prompted by the OFCOM complaint, which cited two "Tom and Jerry" cartoons. The Turner spokeswoman said that it might be possible to modify such cartoons without drastic edits or having to remove them from the library. "These are historic cartoons, they were made well over 50 years ago in a different time and different place," she added. "Our audience is children and we don't want to be irresponsible."

Fox TV has become the first buyer to buy "blink" commercials -- one- to three-seconds long on Clear Channel Radio stations. It will use the time to promote the premieres of Prison Break, House and The Simpsons. Kaye Bentley, senior VP, Fox Broadcasting, told Advertising Age magazine that the network has "the perfect shows" for a "blink" campaign "because we've got a lot of one-word title shows and we've got a lot of shows that are known properties." In the case of The Simpsons, Bentley indicated, Homer Simpson will be heard saying, "Doh!" followed by an announcer remarking, "The Simpsons, tonight on Fox." The "blinks" will not air during conventional commercial blocks, Fox said, but during regular programming.

Television viewers in Sweden watching a late-night news program were stunned Monday night when a hard-core porn film showing group anal and oral sex appeared on a monitor over the shoulder of a newscaster. Officials of the public broadcasting station SVT told the English-language Swedish website The Local that they were "shocked and upset" that the porn film got on the air and said that night staff had been watching the channel -- from France's Canal Plus -- earlier in the evening and had forgotten to switch it off before the news program went on the air. "It is incredible that nobody working noticed this," said SVT boss Magnus Åkerlund.

Former ABC newsman Richard Gizbert, who was awarded only $180,000 after he successfully sued ABC News claiming that he was fired after refusing to travel to Iraq, found himself losing out entirely Monday when an employment appeal tribunal ruled against him. The tribunal found that ABC had put Gizbert "under no obligation, contractual or otherwise, to visit war zones." Gizbert was recently hired to report for the upcoming English-language version of the Al-Jazeera news channel.