In the latest demonstration of how little influence film critics are able to exert on the box office these days, the Will Smith starrer Hancock collected an estimated $66 million over the three-day weekend despite an avalanche of negative reviews. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media by Numbers, said, "The Sony marketing machine and Will Smith's recognition transcend any [critical] barbs the movie might sustain." In a separate interview with the Associated Press, Dergarabedian called Smith "the most bankable star in the world." Since Hancock opened with two preview screenings on Tuesday, it has taken in $107.3 million. It earned an additional $78 million overseas. It marked Smith's eighth consecutive film to open in first place. Meanwhile, last weekend's champ, Disney/Pixar's WALL-E, slipped to second place with about $33.4 million (a drop of 47 percent), to bring its 10-day total to $128.1 million. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, the only other film besides Hancock to open wide (it had played in New York and Los Angeles the previous two weeks), proved to be a disappointment, taking in only $3.6 million and winding up in eighth place.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. Hancock, $66 million; 2. WALL-E, $33.4 million; 3. Wanted, $20.6 million; 4. Get Smart, $11.1 million; 5. Kung Fu Panda, $7.5 million; 6. The Incredible Hulk, $5 million; 7. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $3.9 million; 8. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, $3.6 million; 9. Sex and the City, $2.3 million; 10. You Don't Mess With the Zohan, $2 million.

Further talks between the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers were in de facto recess while both sides awaited results of a ratification vote by members of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists on their own deal with the AMPTP. At the same time, SAG mounted a last-ditch ad campaign urging AFTRA members to vote down the deal. Meanwhile, the Hollywood Reporter reported today (Monday) that some SAG members are planning to challenge the validity of the AFTRA vote if, as expected, the contract is approved. One unnamed SAG member told the trade publication: "Only affected members should vote on the contract. ... Allowing broadcasters and disc jockeys to vote on it, that will be challenged." On the other hand, Robert De Niro became the latest prominent actor to voice his opposition to SAG's strategy. Appearing at a news conference at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic, De Niro said of the actors' stance, "I do not know if it is the right time to be doing this at all with the [U.S.] economy the way it is."

British film censors should take into account smoking scenes in movies when dispensing exhibition licenses, the British Medical Association said today (Monday). In a report, the BMA said that between 1950 and 1990, film portrayals of people smoking decreased but that the trend "has gone into reverse" over the past 20 years. The BMA called for laws requiring anti-smoking messages to be shown before every film in which smoking is portrayed positively. It also suggested that some films and TV shows include death scenes involving characters who have contracted smoking-related disease.

Stig Olin, who starred in six Ingmar Bergman films in the 1940s and '50s and went on to become a famous film director in his own right in the '50s and '60s before becoming a stage director, died on June 28 at age 87, Daily Variety reported today (Monday). He was the father of famed Swedish actress Lena Olin.

NBC Universal, along with investment groups Bain Capital and Blackstone Group, have agreed to acquire The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications for a reported $3.5 billion. The Weather Channel is one of the most widely distributed basic cable networks, available in more than 97 percent of cable-TV homes. Since 2004, NBC and its affiliates have also operated their own weather network, NBC Weather Plus. In an interview with today's (Monday) New York Times, NBC chief Jeff Zucker said that the fate of Weather Plus is currently "undetermined." Another apparently unresolved issue is how NBC intends to treat contracts between TWC and non-NBC affiliates. The NBC/TWC deal comes at a time when all networks are devoting increased time and resources to weather coverage. Only last Friday, the entire hour of NBC's Dateline news magazine was devoted to "The Year of the Tornado," and featured a first-time appearance by NBC Weather Plus Chief Meteorologist Bill Karins.

Thirty percent of ad buyers expect to reduce their budgets in broadcast television over the next six months, while 14 percent expect to increase them, according to a survey by market-research firm Advertising Perceptions and reported today (Monday) by Advertising Age. However, in the case of cable TV, 28 percent of buyers said that they intend to increase their ad budgets, while 20 percent said they intend to reduce them. While the survey results "can hardly come as a shock," AdAge commented, "it's far from welcome news for a shaky media economy teetering into the second half."

NBC is planning a massive research effort to apprise advertisers of how effective they have been in reaching viewers during the Olympics via broadcast TV, cable, online, mobile, and video-on-demand platforms, the company's top researcher, Alan Wurtzel, said over the weekend. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Wurtzel said, "We need to demonstrate [to advertisers] that money spent on the Olympics was money well spent. ... Management said to me we have to figure out a way to go beyond Nielsen to measure this stuff." Data will include the first ever overnight ratings of streaming video coverage, provided by Quantcast. In addition, some 8,500 persons are being lined up by Knowledge Networks to keep a media diary to record which medium they are using to watch the games, where they are using it, and for how long.

Network executives trying to attract younger viewers with edgier fare have been stymied by protests directed at the show's advertisers, Advertising Age observed today (Monday), pointing out that North American Philips recently withdrew ads for Norelco products from CBS's Swingtown after receiving five complaints from viewers. "It is a shame," one media buyer told the trade publication. "When the networks try to push the envelope a little and try to be more like HBO, the advertisers run away." The Parents Television Council, which takes credit for the FCC's crackdown on allegedly indecent broadcasts, is urging CBS affiliates not to air the drama. All of which, according to AdAge, has forced CBS to use time on the program for "make-goods" and "bonus units" -- essentially free ads that the network gives away when one of its programs does not deliver a guaranteed number of viewers or when it enhances a sales package with extra ads to attract advertisers.

In planning for the switch from analog to digital TV broadcasting, officials appear to have ignored millions of owners of portable battery-powered analog TVs, the Los Angeles Times observed today (Monday). The tiny sets are often used in case of power failures (or at sports events) and cannot be attached to converter boxes because the boxes themselves require a power source. According to the Consumer Electronics Assn., eight million homes rely on hand-held TVs in case of emergency, all of which will become obsolete on February 18. However, the Times noted, one converter box maker, Winegard Co., plans to offer a $20-25 battery pack for its models next month.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp., which has been without a headquarters in Queensland for a year and a half after abandoning it following reports of an unusual number of breast cancer cases among its staff, has now been forced to abandon plans to build a new headquarters after the discovery of possible radioactive contamination at the proposed site. The ABC had been in the process of conducting due diligence on a deal to acquire 42,000 square feet of land in Newstead but said it had canceled the contract after the discovery of elevated levels of radiation there.

Some 12.7 million BBC viewers on Sunday tuned in to watch Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer at Wimbledon in the longest men's final tennis match in the tournament's history.