Demonstrating convincingly that movie audiences don't really care all that much whether an animated film is produced by human hands or by computers -- so long as the script is compelling -- the hand-drawn (in Korea) The Simpsons Movie took in an estimated $71.85 million over the weekend -- well above analysts' estimates. Twentieth Century Fox boasted that the movie opened with bigger box-office results than any Pixar film. (Among animated films, it was exceeded only by the first two Shrek movies.) It was responsible for 55 percent of all ticket sales overseas, piling up an additional $96 million although debuting in just 8 of the top-15 overseas markets. "I had been saying this is America's No. 1 comedy family, but forget the 'America' part -- this is the Earth's No. 1 comedy family," Chris Aronson, senior vice president for distribution at Fox, told today's (Monday) Los Angeles Times. Domestically, last week's top film, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, fell about 44 percent from last week to $19.1 million, slipping to second place. Three new films also made the top-ten list (two of them, just barely). No Reservations, the Catherine Zeta-Jones romantic comedy entered at No. 5 with $11.8 million, but the Lindsay Lohan starrer, I Know Who Killed me, seemed DOA at $3.4 million (Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News commented Saturday, that even Lohan's "mug shot was made with more skill than this bottom-of-the-barrel B-movie"), while the urban comedy Who's Your Caddy? (Wesley Morris in the Boston Globe called for the United Negro College Fund to be alerted: "A mind has terribly gone to waste") ended in the rough with $2.9 million.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. The Simpsons Movie, $71.9 million; 2. I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, $19.1 million; 3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, $17.1 million; 4. Hairspray, $15.6 million; 5. No Reservations, $11.8 million; 6. Transformers, $11.5 million; 7. Ratatouille, $7.2 million; 8. Live Free or Die Hard, $5.4 million; 9. I Know Who Killed Me, $3.4 million; 10. Who's Your Caddy?, $2.9 million.

The black-and-white 1957 sci-fi thriller 20 Million Miles to Earth, in which an "Ymir" from the planet Venus, is let loose following the crash-landing of a space ship, then grows to enormous size and threatens to destroy Rome, is set to be released on DVD Tuesday -- in color. The colorized version was supervised by legendary special-effects master Ray Harryhausen, who told today's (Monday) New York Post that the film's producers had originally wanted to shoot the film in color but weren't able to do so because of the expense. He expressed satisfaction with the new version of Earth, telling the Post that colorizing some older films "gives them a whole new life. ... People are prejudiced against colorization because the first ones, from 20 years ago, didn't look so good. But I'm very impressed with what they can do now."

Only days after announcing that it was getting into the wine business by distributing a French Chardonnay under the brand name Ratatouille, Disney said Friday that it has canceled the project. It attributed its decision to "a trickle of inquiries and complaints." The Los Angeles Times on Saturday said they came from California winemakers and opponents of underage drinking. Disney spokesman Gary Foster acknowledged that the California Wine Institute, which represents 950 California vintners, has been "relentless in trying to make this an issue." However, he observed, "the entire movie is based on a French restaurant and French food and wine." A spokesman for the institute insisted, however, that the label appeared to violate "the spirit" of the institute's code barring any advertising that might promote underage drinking. "We would have been just as upset if it were a California wine," Nancy Light, an institute spokeswoman, told the Times.

The Argentinean film XXY was awarded the Bangkok Film Festival's top prize, the Golden Kinnaree, Saturday night. The jury prize was won by China's Lost in Beijing, while James Lee's Before We Fall in Love Again won a separate all-Asian competition. Attendance at the Friday and Saturday screenings at the Central World multiplex rose, and seminars conducted on such issues as piracy and censorship were well attended despite remarks by panelists that seemed so pedantic that they matched the outdoor hot air (or, at any rate, so the English translation seemed). The censorship discussion on Saturday began with a film montage of comments on the issue from young people, ending with one young man denouncing dictatorship -- and being cut off. (Thailand is currently ruled by a military junta that seized power in a bloodless coup last September.) Meanwhile, the head of the Tourism Authority of Thailand said Sunday that while the TAT is pleased with the results of this year's festival it will need support from other government agencies to mount a large-scale film festival again next year. The budget of this year's festival was slashed by two-thirds from last year's.

Ingmar Bergman, one of the world's most influential -- and revered -- directors of the century died today (Monday) on Faro Island, Sweden at the age of 89. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed. Woody Allen once called him "probably the greatest film artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera." In its obituary, the New York Times took note of the fact that critics regarded Bergman as "one of the directors -- the others being Federico Fellini and Akira Kurosawa -- who dominated the world of serious film making in the second half of the 20th century."

Michel Serrault, best known in the U.S. for his 1978 performance as the transvestite nightclub owner Zaza Napoli in the original French movie La Cage Aux Folles, died Sunday of cancer in Honfleur, France at age 79. He appeared in some 130 films during his career.

When Late Night's Conan O'Brien takes over the Tonight show in 2009, he will most likely be succeeded by former Saturday Night Live co-star Jimmy Fallon, Broadcasting & Cable reported in its current issue, citing people familiar with the talks between NBC and Fallon representatives. The trade publication said that the network won't make an official announcement until after the first of the year, but it quoted NBC late-night chief Rick Ludwin as saying of Fallon, "I think he'd be terrific, and he is at the top of our short list." Although Fallon has not auditioned for the hosting job, Ludwin said, "We know him from SNL and saw what he can do on-camera and off-camera, and I think he'd be terrific."

The success of The Simpsons Movie in theaters over the weekend did not translate into bigger audiences for the television show on Sunday night. The series, which has produced only lackluster ratings for the past two years, wound up in fourth place in its time slot Sunday with a 3.1 rating and a 6 share. The series continued to post respectable numbers among 18-49-year-olds, however, placing second in the demo with a 2.2/7.

Taking note of the fact that representatives of the entertainment industry, including broadcasting and cable execs, attend the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sony Pictures Television said that it plans to set up a booth next to its Sony Electronics corporate sibling next year. "We want to take a leadership role and let people know we are going to be talking about content at CES next January," SPT chief Steve Mosko told Broadcasting & Cable magazine. The trade publication said that SPT plans to kick off the event with a major presentation -- possibly a standup routine by Jerry Seinfeld. Mosko says he believes other producers of TV shows will follow. "It's kind of becoming the convention you don't want to miss," he told B&C.

Tom Snyder, who hosted NBC's late-night The Tomorrow Show from 1972-1982, then returned in 1995 as host of The Late Late Show on CBS for three years, died Sunday in San Francisco at age 71. In 2005, he disclosed on his website that he was battling chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He said at the time that doctors had told him that some people diagnosed with the condition had lived with it for 30 years. "Considering I will be 69 years old next month," he wrote, "I ain't looking for 30 years, but 15 more would be nice."

It may only be the end of July, but several pilots of next season's shows have suddenly appeared online -- including some which are not expected to debut until midseason next year, Television Week reported today (Monday). Among the pirated shows available for downloading on such sites as Torrent Spy, The Pirate Bay and Mininova, are NBC's Bionic Woman, Chuck, and Lipstick Jungle ABC's Pushing Daisies and Cavemen, The CW's Reaper, and Fox's The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The trade publication said that it had downloaded several of the pilots and commented: "The videos were of reasonably high quality, akin to the streaming programs on broadcast network Web sites."

Google-owned YouTube plans to institute new technology in September that will block the pirating of TV shows and movies on its website, it told a judge overseeing Viacom's copyright-infringement lawsuit against the video website on Friday. Viacom responded that YouTube should not have gone online without such technology in place and added that YouTube has profited from illegally uploaded copyrighted material from the beginning of its existence.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has asked the BBC not air a controversial documentary about her after a promo of the film turned out to have contrived scenes to make it appear that she had stormed out of a photo session with famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, Britain's Mail on Sunday reported, citing well-placed sources. The BBC responded that it plans to broadcast the documentary, A Year With the Queen, as originally planned and would ensure that the final cut of the film will be edited in strict accordance with its rules on fairness and accuracy.