Giving further evidence -- if it were ever needed -- that teenage boys rule the box office, Paramount's gross-out stunts movie Jackass Number Two raked in an estimated $28.1 million at the box office over the weekend, almost three times as much as another film aimed at the same audience -- Jet Li's Fearless, which came in second with $10.6 million. Yet another film aimed principally at teenage males came in third, Gridiron Gang, which took the top spot last week, this week earned an additional $9.7 million. A third new release, Flyboys, featuring handsome young actors in uniform aiming to charm young girls, finished fourth with $6 million. Rounding out the top five was the animated Everyone's Hero, which earned $4.8 million. A fourth new film, All the King's Men, with a cast headed by Sean Penn, became not only a critical disappointment but an even bigger box-office failure, earning just $3.8 million and winding up in seventh place. Meanwhile, overseas, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest recorded its 11th week at the top of the box office, registering $7.6 million. Somewhat surprisingly, Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, which had not been expected to perform well abroad, made a strong showing to take second place with $6.1 million.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations: 1. Jackass Number Two, $28.1 million; 2. Jet Li's Fearless, $10.6 million; 3. Gridiron Gang, $9.7 million; 4. Flyboys, $6 million; 5. Everyone's Hero, $4.75 million; 6. The Black Dahlia, $4.4 million; 7. All the King's Men, $3.8 million; 8. The Covenant, $3.3 million; 9. The Illusionist, $3.28 million; 10. Little Miss Sunshine, $2.9 million.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest may have made more money at the box office this year, but the most profitable film was The Da Vinci Code, according to a study by Monterey, CA-based Kagan Research. The report observed that while Disney's Pirates took in $418.8 million at the domestic box office -- nearly $200 million more than Sony's Code, the Sony movie had a budget that was $75 million lower than Disney's and had a far lower marketing budget. Kagan concluded that revenue for Code will be 3.2 times its cost to produce and market, while Pirates' will be 3.1 times its costs.

Amazon may ally itself with TiVo to deliver movies, downloaded from the Internet, to TV sets, the New York Post reported today (Monday), citing two sources familiar with the discussions. Earlier this month Apple unveiled a device that can do the same thing wirelessly. However, it only has a deal in place with Disney, while Amazon has signed up every other major studio. Analysts are predicting the newest versions of Microsoft and Sony's respective video game devices will also act as bridges to deliver downloaded movies to TV sets.

Wal-Mart has denied a report that appeared in the New York Post last week that it has told the major studios that it will retaliate against them if they begin selling their films on Apple's iTunes Store. Only Disney has thus far agreed to do so. The retail giant, which reportedly sells more than 40 percent of all DVDs sold in the U.S., had already begun returning "cases and cases" of DVDs to Disney, according to the Post.Wal-Mart called the report "a rehashing of misinformation" A spokeswoman for the company added, "Customers want to watch movies and they want to be able to make the choice when and how they want to view them. ... While we recognise there are various current and potential providers of this service, we are not dissuading studios from conducting business with other providers."

In an elaborate effort to head off the press, Mel Gibson attended screenings of his new movie Apocalypto in two Oklahoma towns wearing a disguise and after first issuing a press release saying that the screenings had been canceled. The Hollywood Reporter said that at one of the screenings Gibson compared the collapse of the Mayan civilization depicted in the film with what is occurring now in the U.S. "What's human sacrifice," he asked, "if not sending guys off to Iraq for no reason?" Gibson, who has lent his name to Republican causes and candidates in the past -- an effort aimed at drafting him to run for president was launched last year -- has reportedly become increasingly critical of the Bush administration's conduct of the war in Iraq. Apocalypto is scheduled for release on Dec. 8.

Even football proved to be no match for Desperate Housewives as the ABC drama made its season debut with the highest ratings of any show Sunday night, scoring a 15.8 rating and a 23 share. Nevertheless, the figures were considerably below the 19.1/26 registered by the season opener of Housewives last year. Last year, however, the show did not have to face the double-barreled competition that it took on this time around. Sunday Night Football on NBC (Denver vs. New England) averaged a 10.6/16 from 8:15-11:30 p.m. And CBS's Cold Case was just a notch behind with a 10.5/15. At 10:00 p.m. the season premiere of CBS's Without a Trace scored an impressive 11.9/19, barely edging out ABC's series premiere of Brothers & Sisters, which recorded an 11.0/17. Meanwhile, ABC's gamble in moving Grey's Anatomy to Thursday paid off in spades last week as the season premiere beat CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation -- the usual top-rated show not only on Thursday nights but also for the entire week, and indeed the entire season. Daily Variety called it a "monster bow," one that put ABC ahead in the adults 18-49 demographic category on Thursday night for the first time since at least 1991, according to the trade publication. (CBS remained ahead in overall household ratings for the night.)

Former President Bill Clinton lashed out at Fox News Channel, its reporter Chris Wallace, and the miniseries The Path to 9/11 Sunday. Asked by Wallace, "Do you think you did enough, sir [to respond to terrorist threats]?" Clinton at first answered, "No, because I didn't get him" -- to which Wallace remarked, "Right." That seemed to set off Clinton, who continued: "But at least I tried ... So I tried and failed. When I failed, I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke, who got demoted [under Bush]. So you did Fox's bidding on this show. You did your nice little conservative hit job on me." A moment later, he continued: "I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill [Osama Bin Laden]. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since. And if I were still president, we'd have more than 20,000 troops there trying to kill him. Now, I've never criticized President Bush, and I don't think this is useful. But you know we do have a government that thinks Afghanistan [where Bin Laden is believed to be holed up] is only one-seventh as important as Iraq. ... And you've got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever. But I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it. But I did try. And I did everything I thought I responsibly could." Later Wallace told Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post that he was surprised by Clinton's response. "I thought it was a fair, balanced and not especially inflammatory question," Wallace said. The TVNewser website reported Sunday that Fox had been posting its "trademark questions," including one that asked: "Clinton's outburst: Real anger, or coolly calculated?"

Details of how it occurred were not available this morning (Monday), but somehow the use of the F-word during Sunday night's broadcast of Family Guy got on the air in at least some markets. In other areas it was bleeped. The unedited version of the scene, however, was quickly posted on YouTube.com by a viewer who comment, "The F-bomb was heard plain as day." Another predicted that someone at the network is going to be "in some deep schtick."