Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix turned into a bigger order than even Warner Bros. expected as the movie smashed records in its first five days, taking in a total of $140 million in North America and $330 million worldwide, the studio said Monday. Nevertheless shares in Time Warner, which is likely to take in more than $1 billion from the film eventually, barely inched forward on Monday, rising only seven cents. Bloomberg News suggested that the reason for the cool response may be investors' wariness with media stocks in general. Traditionally, it noted, studios don't reveal the actual costs of making a film and often don't break out earnings from ancillary sales, like toys and videogames, either. "Because there's no way to tell how much Time Warner will really earn from the full Phoenix juggernaut, investors may be loath to give it the benefit of the doubt," the wire service commented.

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Media by Numbers (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Warner Bros., $77,108,414, 1 Wk. ($139,715,157); 2. Transformers, Paramount, $37,027,901, 2 Wks. ($224,009,583); 3. Ratatouille, Disney, $18,012,196, 3 Wks. ($142,997,082); 4. Live Free or Die Hard, 20th Century Fox, $11,279,135, 3 Wks. ($103,322,580); 5. License to Wed, Warner Bros., $7,311,297, 2 Wks. ($30,379,749); 6. 1408, MGM, $4,934,516, 4 Wks. ($62,127,222); 7. Evan Almighty, Universal, $4,895,055, 4 Wks. ($87,790,505); 8. Knocked Up, Universal, $3,676,500, 7 Wks. ($138,217,270); 9. Sicko, Lionsgate, $2,604,139, 4 Wks. ($15,830,046); 10. Ocean's Thirteen, Warner Bros., $1,984,323, 6 Wks. ($112,506,702).

Captivity, the only other film to open wide over the weekend, was unable to capture an audience. It earned just $1.4 million to place twelfth on the box-office list. On the other hand, the Don Cheadle-starring Talk to Me posted $402,000 from just 33 theaters during its opening -- or an average of $12,182 per theater. That put it behind only Harry Potter in per-theater ticket sales.

After this year's Shrek the Third there will be a fourth and fifth episode featuring the green Scottish ogre, and that will be it, DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg said at the Allen & Co. media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. Katzenberg indicated that the studio plans to release the fourth Shrek installment in 2010, but he did not indicate when the final one will come out. In an interview with Bloomberg News, DreamWorks Animation spokesman Rich Sullivan said that the "story itself has five chapters," seeming to suggest that at least the outline of the scripts for the final two films has already been drafted.

Disney is planning to demonstrate the clarity of its next-generation Blu-ray DVD releases during a shopping mall road show between August 17 and December 23. The Magical Blu-ray Tour, sponsored in part by Panasonic, the largest manufacturer of high-definition monitors, will display Blu-ray versions of Cars and Meet the Robinsons in mini-theaters. At the same time, the audience will be able to access the Internet to chat with viewers about the movie and interact with filmmakers. In an interview with USA Today, Bob Chapek, president of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, said that consumers were confused about high-definition DVDs, "and we want to help everyone understand this amazing new technology." Disney releases high-definition DVDs only in the Blu-ray format.

While the major film studios have been reluctant to allow their movies to be downloaded online and burned onto a DVD that can be played on TV sets, the porn industry appears ready to make that leap at once, according to USA Today. The newspaper reported that Vivid Entertainment plans to offer its films via the online CinemaNow movie service beginning Monday. The article pointed out that the studios' reluctance to do the same thing is largely based on their unwillingness to risk the wrath of big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy who currently are the largest sellers of DVDs. But Vivid's Bill Asher told USA Today that his company doesn't have to be concerned about any of its retailers. "We sell in smaller stores, mainstream chains, but no one dominant component where we're going to get that phone call," he said.

Meeting with TV newspaper columnists and critics for the first time on Monday, NBC Entertainment Co-chairman Ben Silverman ticked off a slew of major changes that the network will undergo under his aegis. Among them: Jerry Seinfeld will appear in a recurring role (as himself) on 30 Rock starting with the season premiere; Isaiah Washington, dumped from Grey's Anatomy in the wake of an anti-gay slur directed at a fellow cast member, will guest star on the upcoming Bionic Woman series; Norman Lear, the creator of such trailblazing shows as All in the Family, The Jeffersons, and Maude will produce a new one-hour comedy for the network; and The Apprentice will return with a celebrity version. (Silverman suggested that "it'd be great to get Rosie [O'Donnell]" for the show and that Donald Trump had asked him to extend an invitation to her. An O'Donnell spokeswoman later responded: "It will never happen in this lifetime or beyond.")

In what could have been a scene from the now-canceled Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, a reporter asked NBC Entertainment Co-chairman Ben Silverman Monday, "What do you think about a company that pays an executive $6 million and fires him a month later? Is that a good company?" The reporter was referring to Kevin Reilly, Silverman's predecessor, who recently landed on his feet in a similar post at Fox. Silverman seemed unsure about how to respond properly to the question, but his colleague, Marc Graboff, promptly fielded it. "He wasn't fired," Graboff told the reporters, then explained: "What happened was when Ben became available, about three months after we made Kevin's new deal, we jumped at the opportunity to bring Ben on board to the company. Kevin, when that happened, realized or determined, frankly, that there was just no role for him at the company and decided to move on." His remarks produced a derisive roar of laughter from the TV press corps.

Aaron Sorkin has acknowledged that his personal foibles may have been at least partly to blame for the failure of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.The show featured a character who, like Sorkin, had a history of drug-related problems. (In 2001 Sorkin was arrested at Burbank airport when it was discovered that his carry-on bag contained marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms and crack cocaine; he subsequently spent time in rehab.) In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sorkin said, "There were too many people looking at this show like it was the cover of 'Abbey Road.' ... It was never an autobiographical show. I'm a lot more than a recovering cocaine addict." In any case, he admitted that he had come up short in meeting expectations for the highly touted show. "I don't know how to emphasize this enough that I'm not disappointed or upset with anyone but myself," Sorkin told the Times."On some shows, you can make mistakes and still survive. But with this one, I made too many mistakes for it to survive."

Negotiators for News Corp and Dow Jones reached a tentative deal on Monday for Rupert Murdoch's company to acquire the publisher of The Wall Street Journal for $5 billion, the Journal reported today (Tuesday). The Dow Jones board is expected to approve the deal at a meeting set for tonight. An even more crucial meeting is reportedly set for Thursday, when the Bancroft family, who control about 64 percent of the company's votes, considers it. (Some reports indicated that the family vote is not likely to occur before next week.) Shares of Dow Jones advanced slightly to $57.50 in early trading today (Tuesday). They are up 65 percent from where they were on April 30 ($36.33), the day before Murdoch made his offer to buy the company for about $60 per share.

Mary Mapes, the longtime CBS news producer who was fired in the wake of the controversy over her Dan Rather-fronted report about George W. Bush's National Guard service, has called the CBS newsroom "a tough place to work" where only the "savvy" survive. Appearing on Joe Scarborough's talk show on MSNBC Monday, Mapes suggested that Katie Couric is unlikely to remain a survivor. "She's gone from being sort of an exuberant presence to someone who looks like they've been kidnapped and drugged and are making a hostage tape," she said. She dismissed the notion that Couric's low ratings have resulted from the public's unwillingness to accept a woman as news anchor, saying that the main problem is that Couric is "just not comfortable to watch."