Several major U.S. newspapers have jumped the gun on publishing reviews of Spider-Man 3, presumably because of the early release of the movie abroad and its premiere earlier in the week at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. While all the reviews suggest that the movie is worth the price of admission, several suggest that, given its reported budget of an overwhelming $250 million, it ought to have been overwhelming in its own right. As Kenneth Turan puts it in today's (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times: "It is simultaneously encouraging that this Spider-Man actually attempts to bring some originality to the table and disheartening that those attempts are not enough." One of Turan's complaints: "All that money also allowed spendthrift Spider-Man 3 to acquire too many villains" including an egomaniacal Spider-Man alter ego himself. The Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips -- who puts the cost of the movie at $300 million -- says all that cash really doesn't show. "You want big wows with this sort of entertainment, and the wows here are medium. ... When 3 is over ... you mainly recall Spider-Man getting flung against girders over and over, in progressively less inventive fight scenes." Richard Roeper's review in the Chicago Sun-Times is 1,144 words long and covers 47 paragraphs. He suggests that it takes that much copy to describe what the movie is about. "I don't think there were this many storylines in Crash," he writes. Christy Lemire of the Associated Press calls it "a bloated, uneven behemoth." It's a complaint echoed by Lou Lumenick in the New York Post, who begins his review by writing, "Oh, what a tangled web does Spider-Man 3 weave. Overly long and complicated, it's packed with crowd-pleasing moments and satisfactorily wraps up the trilogy -- without quite capturing the magic of the first two installments." That's also the conclusion of Claudia Puig in USA Today, who writes that the movie "tries gamely, is solidly entertaining and possesses dazzling special effects, but it falls short of the near-perfection of" Spider-Man 2. But Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News concludes that there is only one thing on which audiences will judge the movie: "I'll take a wild guess and say that Spidey fans come for the action and, on that count, they will not be disappointed."

Setting the stage for what almost certainly will be an auspicious bow in the U.S. on Friday, Spider-Man 3 debuted in about a dozen countries Tuesday and set opening-day records in virtually all of them. (Ticket sales in some countries were not immediately reported.) In Japan, the film took in $3.46 million, beating the previous record holder, Spider-Man 2, which opened with $3.42 million. Sony distribution chief Jeff Blake said that the movie also bested opening day records in Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. The film -- starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace and Bryce Dallas Howard -- is due to launch at 4,253 theaters on Friday, the widest domestic release ever.

What a difference a Harry Potter movie can make. Time Warner said in its quarterly report Tuesday that without anything like a Harry Potter DVD to offer in video stores, its net income fell 18 percent to $1.2 billion from $1.46 billion during the comparable quarter a year ago. Its biggest DVD seller this year was the animated Happy Feet, which took in $198 million. But that was no where close to the $290 million that the last Harry Potter movie generated on DVD a year earlier. Partly offsetting the decline in theater and DVD revenue, earnings at Time Warner's cable-TV company and its AOL unit gained strongly during the quarter.

Pulling popular television shows off the air for lengthy periods of time and replacing them with iffy shows may harm them far more than simply running repeats, the latest Nielsen ratings suggest. ABC, CBS, and NBC each brought back former hit series to their lineups last week as the May sweeps began, but none of them produced the kind of ratings that they did when they were yanked. NBC's Heroes saw its audience drop 18 percent, from 14.7 million before the hiatus to 12 million after it (a series low). ABC's Lost suffered a 21-percent drop, going from 15.1 million to 11.9 million. CBS's Jericho fell 21 percent -- from 9.6 million viewers to 7.6 million. Meanwhile, CBS regained the ratings crown last week with an average 7.0 rating and a 12 share, edging out Fox with a 6.9/12. ABC placed third with a 6.3/11, while NBC rounded out the top four with a 4.4/8.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research: 1. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 15.7/25; 2. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 15.6/25; 3. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 12.9/20; 4. House, Fox, 12.6/19; 5. Dancing With the Stars (Monday), ABC, 12.5/20; 6. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 12.3/19; 7. CSI: Miami, CBS, 11.1/19; 8. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 11.0/17; 9. Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 10.8/16; 10. Shark, CBS, 9.2/16.

American Idol, featuring guest star Jon Bon Jovi, once again dominated the ratings race Tuesday night, improving slightly from last week to a 16.2 rating an a 25 share, although it was off from the comparable week a year ago when it posted a 17.3/26. CBS's NCIS provided solid competition as it scored a 9.1/14 in the same (8:00 p.m.) time period. Fox's House also continued to score strongly at 9:00 p.m. with a 13.1/19, but ABC's Dancing With the Stars results show gave it plenty of competion, registering an 11.4/17. NBC's Law & Order: SVU took the lead at 10:00 p.m. with an 8.8/14, just ahead of ABC's Boston Legal, which drew a 7.4/12.

Rupert Murdoch clearly had his plans for launching a Fox Business Channel in mind when he offered $5 billion -- representing a massive 67-percent premium -- to buy the Wall Street Journal and its other businesses Tuesday. Interviewed by Neil Cavuto on Fox News Channel Tuesday, Murdoch said that the acquisition would "help" the new channel. "We just want to have a business channel that lives up to the quality and traditions of the Wall Street Journal," he said. "If we could do that, we would do very well." Reminded that rival CNBC already has an exclusive deal in place with the WSJ that remains in effect through 2012, Murdoch observed that the Journal's editors also appear on Fox News every weekend. "We think there is plenty of room for us all to work together." Today's (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times cited sources close to GE, which owns CNBC, as saying that the CNBC-WSJ contract remains binding even in the event of a takeover. However Derek Baine of Kagan Research told the newspaper that Murdoch is prepared to wait another five years if necessary to bring the Journal fully into the Fox Business Channel fold, because he "is a real long-term planner." Ironically, news of Murdoch's bid was first reported Tuesday, not by Fox News Channel, but by David Faber on CNBC.

The Dolan family, headed by Charles Dolan and his son James, plan to shell out $10.5 billion to take their Cablevision Systems company private. (The price would be nearly $23 billion when debt is factored into the deal.) The deal values Cablevision shares at $36.26; they closed Tuesday at $32.67, then jumped to $36.25 in after-hours trading. Analysts observed that the Dolans had twice attempted to take Cablevision, which serves mostly the New York City area, private -- and failed, and that this offer, too, is dubious, given the heady profits that cable companies are now generating following years of heavy investment in infrastructure. Nevertheless, the New York Times reported on its website today (Wednesday) that the offer had been accepted. Besides the cable systems, Cablevision also owns Rainbow Programming (AMC, Independent Film Channel), Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the New York Knicks basketball team and the New York Rangers hockey team.

Tom Poston, who played second-banana roles on countless hit TV shows dating back to The Steve Allen Show in the 1950s and including The Phil Silvers Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Mork and Mindy, and Newhart, died Monday in Los Angeles at age 85.