There was likely to be hand-wringing aplenty at the studios today (Monday) in the aftermath of a weekend in which the top film earned less than $10 million and the top 12 movies took in a combined $62.9 million. Ordinarily, that's the kind of box-office total that analysts expect in September, when kids return to school. Spider-Man 3, which opens Friday, is expected to earn twice that amount -- on its own -- next weekend. For the third week in a row, the Shia LeBeouf peeping Tom horror flick Disturbia held on to the No. 1 position. It's the first time a movie has performed a box-office hat trick since December 2004. Disney's The Invisible opened in second place with $7.6 million. Audiences appeared tired of seeing Nicolas Cage in second-rate movies. His Next debuted in third place with $7.2 million, resulting in Paramount first outright dud this year.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. Disturbia, $9.1 million; 2. The Invisible, $7.6 million; 3. Next, $7.2 million; 4. Fracture, $7.1 million; 5. Blades of Glory, $5.2 million; 6. Meet the Robinsons, $4.84 million; 7. Hot Fuzz, $4.8 million; 8. Vacancy, $4.2 million; 9. The Condemned, $4 million; 10. Are We Done Yet?, $3.4 million.

Sony reportedly is adding numerous midnight screenings of Spider-Man 3 on Friday (actually Thursday night). In some megaplexes where a single print can be spooled out from one projection booth to another, the movie is being released on several screens virtually at the same time. Meanwhile, a South Korean theater chain is creating a web of its own for the digital debut of Spider-Man 3 in Seoul and Pusan, the country's two largest cities, tonight (Tuesday, Korean time). Megabox-Cineplex said that the movie will be delivered to the theaters' digital projection systems from a centralized server, using the theater owners' own fiber-optic cable, thereby reducing the chance that hackers or pirates can intercept it.

Second Sight, a popular BBC detective series about a detective feverishly attempting to solve a murder after learning that he is going blind -- and trying to hide that fact from his superiors -- may be made into a theatrical movie by Universal, Daily Variety reported today (Monday). The TV series -- which appeared on PBS's Masterpiece Theater in the U.S. -- originally starred Clive Owen in the role of the visually impaired detective. But Variety said that Owen has not been signed to the theatrical version.

For the first time, a movie is being released straight to high-definition video. According to the online High-Def Disc News, the horror film Bell Witch will debut on both the Blu-ray and HD DVD formats on August 15. In a news release, director Shane Marr said that the movie had originally been shot using high-definition digital cameras and edited on digital post-production equipment five years ago. However, he said, "We decided to hold the film until it could be released in HD so that people could see it as it was meant to be viewed."

Grindhouse, the Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino homage to the horror films of the 1960's and '70s faces the prospect of a DVD release only in Britain, following its box-office failure in the U.S., the London Independent on Sunday reported. The newspaper said that the film is also being axed in other countries. "All is not yet lost, though," the newspaper observed, noting that Tarantino is cutting his half of the movie, Death Proof, and submitting it in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, which opens in two weeks.

NBC Universal has settled a lawsuit brought by the creators of Will & Grace, who had claimed that NBC Studios, the company that had produced it, had sold it to the NBC network for a low fee, thereby cheating them out of their fair share of what would have been a larger profit.. NBC decided to settle after the jury had already reached a verdict against the company as both sides feared that the jury foreman might be disqualified and that they would have to return to court to do battle with one another again, according to news reports. The foreman, it was recently disclosed, had once written disparaging commentaries on his website condemning the "corporate media." Today's (Monday) Los Angeles Times reported that the jury had decided to award Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick $49 million. "We determined that there was fraud," one juror, Robert Centrone, told the newspaper. Another, Rick Gonzales, added, "How do you make a determination of the fair market value when you are bidding against your boss? Let's be realistic, NBC and NBC Studios, they were a monopoly."

An ABC 20/20 report about a Washington D.C. "escort service" is expected to draw top ratings when it airs Friday night during the May sweeps. The exposé has already resulted in the resignation of Deputy Secretary of State Randall Tobias, after ABC's investigations unit, headed by Brian Ross, found his name in the madam's phone records. Additional resignations could come before the broadcast airs, some reports speculated, producing further free publicity for it. Meanwhile, last Friday's 20/20, featuring an hour-long report by Barbara Walters about transgender children, placed second among overall viewers, but, in an anomaly for a news magazine, which usually draws older viewers, placed first among adults 18-49.

In what could force a reexamination of what often is regarded as an all-too-chummy relationship between the administration and the "fourth estate," the New York Times has confirmed that it will no longer attend the annual White House Correspondents Association dinners in Washington. The decision by the newspaper was originally revealed in a column by the Times's Frank Rich, who wrote Sunday that the event "illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows." It also comes days after a Congressional hearing looked into charges that the Pentagon had, for propaganda purposes, fabricated an elaborate account about the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, who was eulogized by President Bush at the 2004 WHCA dinner. No other news organization immediately indicated that it would follow the Times's lead. Last week incoming WHCA President Ann Compton of ABC News, discounted the growing complaints that the dinner is unethical, telling Editor & Publisher, that the charges are "way overdone."

As NBC News President Steve Capus was being lambasted by both liberal and conservative critics for airing the video sent to the network by Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-hui, he received a telephone call from former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw congratulating him on his handling of the matter. Today's (Monday) Washington Post reported that after Capus appeared on Oprah Winfrey's talk show with current NBC anchor Brian Williams to discuss the decision to air Cho's tape, Brokaw phoned to say, "You had to do it. ... It's okay to have these discussions about how the press makes decisions.." Capus says that he is still angry about comments from some critics that the network "will have blood on its hands" if another deranged killer is inspired by the tape to follow suit. "We're not above criticism," Capus told the Post, "but let's not take the easy way out and turn to the lowest form of political rhetoric."

Matsushita Electronics, which sells consumer electronics goods in the U.S. under the Panasonic brand, predicted Friday that sales of its plasma-screen TV sets will rise 43 percent in 2007, producing record profits. The Dow Jones News Service reported that Matsushita expects to sell five million sets during this year compared with 3.5 million a year ago.