A-listers flock to ‘Yo Gabba Gabba!’

TV shows for pre-schoolers have seldom been called cool, or celebrity-friendly — Sesame Street being one notable exception.

But it’s clear that Yo Gabba Gabba! has struck a chord with both A-list celebrities and regular folk alike. The program is now in its third season on the Nick Jr. cable channel in the U.S., and on Treehouse TV in Canada.

According to the current issue of Entertainment Weekly, “it’s a the coolest kids show on TV ... because of its guests and pop-culture references.”

Among those making guest appearances on the program — which revolves around five costumed characters as toys brought to life by their human host, DJ Lance Rock — have been Jack Black, Andy Samberg, Elijah Wood, Jack McBrayer (30 Rock) and music acts including The Shins, MGMT and The Ting Tings.

Season 3 will feature appearances by Sarah Silverman and “Weird Al” Yankovic, and performances by The Flaming Lips, Weezer and The Killers.

“Most all of the (stars) have kind of approached us as fans of the show,” said co-creator Scott Schultz, 38, down the line from Knotts Berry Farm in Orange County, Calif., where screaming children on rollercoaster could be heard in the background.

“We went after our favourite bands, but really most of those people either have kids or are really kind of doing it for the kids. They’re not just coming on the show to play their newest single or hit song, they’re recording a brand new kids song that we wrote.”

Still to come: the feature-film version, which could be out as soon as next year (Canadian director Jason Reitman is rumoured to be involved). There’s already a touring version, Yo Gabba Gabba! Live!: There’s a Party in My City, which arrives at Toronto’s Elgin Theatre for shows Tuesday and Wednesday (at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m both days) on their first North American tour, which is promoted by Toronto’s Michael Cohl via S2BN Entertainment.

“From the very start of the show, being musicians ourselves and playing in bands and being real music connoisseurs, we were really excited and waiting for the time we could translate this to the live stage,” said Schultz, who created the program with cousin-in-law Christian Jacobs. “We were really excited to kind of go for more of a live concert feeling, where we could all sing our favourite songs, and kids could jump around and dance in more of a concert type of setting than watching a play.”

Schultz says the duo’s mandate was simple in 2001, when they both became fathers for the first time.

“We just thought there’s kind of a wide-open hole here for kids entertainment, for music shows, that could (play) different styles of music, a variety. Kind of like Sesame Street but maybe for our generation ... a more updated version,” Schultz said. “We wanted a show where two- or three-year-olds could be really excited about, just on face value, and jump around and dance around. And not just the kids but also the parents could maybe feel a little bit more involved. Not just sitting their kids in front of the TV, but making a show that I wanted to watch with my pre-school kid at that time.”

Showbiz in the blood for ‘Gabba’ co-creators

Yo Gabba Gabba! co-creators Scott Schultz and Christian Jacobs both come from showbiz backgrounds.

Schultz’s father produced touring variety shows, and Jacobs was a child actor who appeared on All in the Family and The Love Boat.

The duo also grew up skateboarding with the likes of Spike Jonze and Tony Hawk, and played in each other’s bands — Schultz’s defunct indie-pop outfit Majestic, and Jacobs’ cartoon-rock act The Aquabats, who are part of the touring Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! show.

So it’s no surprise that Yo Gabba Gabba! — the title of the kids TV show, a reference to “the magic words” that host DJ Lance utters to bring the five toy characters to life — also has huge celebrity cache.

When Brad Pitt was spotted dressed up for Halloween as DJ Lance, it was the Hollywood equivalent of a royal blessing of the show.

Actors such as Dennis Quaid, Christina Aguilera and Jason Bateman have been spotted at Yo Gabba Gabba! Live! events.

“There’s some street cred for sure,” Schultz said. “We’re just doing a show that we want to see, and we’ve just been lucky enough that everyone else has bought into it and been excited about it.”

'Avatar' will hit Blu-ray and DVD on Earth Day, April 22

"Avatar" may be the ultimate big-screen experience, but how will it fit into the living rooms of the world?!

That's the challenge presented to Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, which on Tuesday will announce some unconventional plans for the DVD and Blu-ray release of the highest-grossing film in the history of Hollywood box office.

"Avatar" will hit stores on April 22, and instead of a disc loaded with extras, it will be just the opposite -- a lean-and-mean approach with only the movie and a relatively simple menu function, a move made to exploit every bit of disc space for the top-of-the-line audio and video presentation of the film, according to the movie's producer, Jon Landau.

In fact, according to sources at Fox, "Avatar" will make history as the first Blu-ray new release from a major studio to hit stores without a single trailer or promotional content of any kind.

"We went to Fox and told them that, for this movie, we wanted to do something really special and reach for the best presentation of any film in the history of the format," Landau said. "This is a movie that has done the unexpected every step of the way. Fox agreed with us and the result is amazing. Everything that is put on a disc takes up room -- the menus, the extras, the trailers and studio promotions -- and we got rid of all of that so we could give this movie the best picture and sound possible."

In another unusual wrinkle, "Avatar" will reach shelves on a Thursday as opposed to the traditional Tuesday release day, so it can coincide with Earth Day. Fox is poised to announce a special environmental campaign that will key off of that date and the film's themes of ecological harmony. Landau and writer-director James Cameron will attend an March 23 press event in West Hollywood where they will discuss the release, the environmental tie-in and plans for a multi-disc "ultimate version" that will follow in November.

One thing the home-video release won't be is 3-D. Just as Cameron took years to make "Avatar" while waiting for the technology that lived up to his visual aspiration, the filmmaker is holding back the 3-D-in-the-home version until the nascent marketplace catches up. Reports that the 3-D version will be released later this year are wrong, according to Fox sources.

Nonetheless, Landau said anyone who watches the 2-D home-video version of the film -- especially the Blu-ray edition -- will be "blown away" by the clarity, color and depth of the image. Typically, the compression sessions that take a theatrical release into the Blu-ray version last two weeks, but for this project the labor stretched out to six weeks.

Consumers will not be getting that hard work for cheap; "Avatar" arrives at retail with premium pricing. For the Earth Day release, the single-disc version of "Avatar" will have a suggested retail price of $29.98 on DVD and $39.99 on Blu-ray. A source at Fox said the "shelf" prices at many retailers will be closer to $19.99 for the DVD and $29.99 for the Blu-ray.

Fox is hoping "Avatar" will make home-video history, rivaling the fastest-selling title ever, "The Dark Knight," which sold 3 million copies its first day in stores in December 2008 (600,000 of those on Blu-ray). CinemaScore, which has been doing consumer research with the Blu-ray format since October 2008, reports that "purchase intent" among consumers is higher for "Avatar" than any previous title. Also, Fox research suggests that a significant percentage of surveyed moviegoers said they plan to use the arrival of "Avatar" as an impetus to switch to the Blu-ray format.

"Avatar" opened in theaters on Dec. 18 and has grossed $2.6 billion worldwide. Landau said he believes the film will continue to do well at theaters and find a different sort of success on home video. He dismissed the suggestion that the 3-D epic will be cramped in the far smaller 2-D home-theater setting.

"There are details that you can see on the Blu-ray that are just amazing," Landau said. "And the reason the movie has done so well isn't because of the 3-D, it's because of the story and the messages and the imagination. The way I view the Blu-ray is a chance for people to go back to Pandora."

Stooges, Genesis, ABBA Enter Rock Hall of Fame in NYC Ceremony

English progressive rockers turned 1980s pop stars Genesis and the harmony-driven Hollies were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday, joined by ABBA, another act that thrived in a second life.

Genesis was inducted by Trey Anastasio of Phish, whose band paid tribute to both incarnations of Genesis by performing "Watcher of the Skies" and "No Reply at All." The new inductees were missing Peter Gabriel, the theatrical lead singer whose departure was the dividing line between the band's two styles.

Former bandmate Mike Rutherford said Gabriel wanted to send his apologies for missing the event.

"He has a very legitimate and genuine excuse," Rutherford said. "He's actually starting a tour."

Anastasio recalled buying Genesis albums as a teenager. He called the band "rebellious, restless and constantly striving for something more."

"Every musical rule and boundary was questioned and broken," he said. "It's impossible to overstate what impact this band and musical philosophy had on me as a young musician. I'm forever in their debt."

Steve Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen's guitarist, paid tribute to The Hollies and the spirit of rock and roll in an eloquent induction speech. Allan Clarke and Graham Nash's "exquisite English harmonies were second, or shared only by the Beatles."

Their British Invasion hits included "Bus Stop" and "Carrie-Anne," both of which the band performed on Monday.

Clarke recalled telling his father he was going to become a professional musician. His father told him that bands only last three or four years, so bank as much money as you can.

"Well, Dad, I'm being inducted into a museum," Clarke said. "How's that for longevity?"

Nash jokingly thanked his colleagues for having "the audacity, the gall" to have three No. 1 hits after he left the band in 1968. Those 1970s standards were "The Air That I Breathe," "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)."

ABBA was never as big in the United States as in Europe. But 6 million of the 26 million copies of ABBA's greatest hits collection were sold in the U.S., and the stage and film productions of "Mamma Mia!" kept their songs alive for a new generation and those who might have missed them in the first place.

Other inductees at the annual ceremony at The Waldorf-Astoria hotel were reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff and the raucous Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Music executive David Geffen and songwriters whose work sold hundreds of millions of copies were to join as non-performers.

The four-member Swedish hit machine ABBA quit in 1982 soon after the band's two couples split. They left behind a string of catchy pop songs such as "Dancing Queen," "Waterloo" and "Knowing Me Knowing You."

Jamaica's Cliff was among the first to export reggae. His best-known songs include "You Can Get It if You Really Want," "The Harder They Come" and "Many Rivers to Cross."

The Michigan-based Stooges never sold many records. But the brutal force of their 1973 album "Raw Power" influenced the punk movement to come, and the rubber-limbed Pop was an electric frontman.

Pop delivered middle-finger salutes to his audience and, at the black-tie affair, had his shirt off even before performing "Search and Destroy." He prowled through the audience for "I Wanna Be Your Dog," and the Stooges were joined onstage by inductor Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.

"Roll over Woodstock," Pop said. "We won!"

For all their toughness, the Stooges seemed genuinely touched by the honor. Scott Asheton paid tribute to his brother and bandmate Ron Asheton, who died last year. Pop choked back tears in thanking his colleagues for getting back together and working.

"Here we are in the belly of the beast - a lot of power and money in this room," he said. "It's a big industry. If it makes the right decisions, it will stay an industry. Music is life, and life is not a business."

Songwriter Carole King was inducting old colleagues from an era (the 1950s and early 1960s) when performers largely left songwriting to others. They included Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil ("You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'," "On Broadway"), Ellie Greenwich & Jeff Barry ("Leader of the Pack," "Be My Baby"), Otis Blackwell ("All Shook Up," "Don't Be Cruel"), Mort Shuman ("Save the Last Dance for Me," "This Magic Moment" with Doc Pomus) and Jesse Stone ("Sh-Boom," "Money Honey").

Geffen, before he spread his influence to other parts of the entertainment business, started the Asylum and Geffen record labels.

Other scheduled performers included Faith Hill, Chris Isaak and Wyclef Jean. The ceremony was being telecast live on the Fuse music network.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is in Cleveland.

Jackson in $200M-plus recording deal

LOS ANGELES – The estate of Michael Jackson has landed the late King of Pop the biggest recording deal in history: a $200 million guaranteed contract with Sony Music Entertainment for 10 projects over seven years, according to a person familiar with the deal.

The record-breaking contract through 2017 could be worth up to $250 million if certain conditions are met. One of the albums will be of never-before-released Jackson recordings that will come out in November, the person said.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the official announcement is expected Tuesday.

Future projects may also include a DVD compilation of videos and a re-release of "Off the Wall," Jackson's fifth studio album, which first came out in 1979, accompanied by some unreleased material. Before his sudden death in June at age 50, the pop star had wanted to re-issue the album, people familiar with the deal said.

One of the projects already counted in the contract was the two-disc album that accompanied "This Is It," the film based on footage of concert rehearsals for what was to have been Jackson's comeback at London's O2 arena.

Including the more than 5 million copies of that special release, Jackson has sold some 31 million albums since his death in June, about two-thirds of them outside the United States.

"During his life, Michael's contracts set the standard for the industry," said John Branca, the co-administrator of the Jackson estate, in a statement prepared for release Tuesday. "By all objective criteria, this agreement with Sony Music demonstrates the lasting power of Michael's music by exceeding all previous industry benchmarks."

Rob Stringer, chairman of Sony Music's Columbia Epic Label Group, said in prepared remarks, "We're dedicated to protecting this icon's legacy and we're thrilled that we can continue to bring his music to the world for the foreseeable future."

Kate Winslet, husband split

LONDON — British movie star Kate Winslet has split from her film director husband Sam Mendes after nearly seven years of marriage, their British law firm said Monday.

With their matching Oscars and string of high-profile commercial and artistic successes, Winslet and Mendes were a golden couple of Britain’s show business world.

But the surprise announcement, sent in an email to journalists, said they had been separated since the beginning of the year without specifying an exact date.

Law firm Schillings said the split was “entirely amicable and is by mutual agreement.”

Winslet, 34, married Mendes, 44, in a small, low-key ceremony in the Caribbean in May 2003. It was Winslet’s second marriage. Her first, to British director Jim Threapleton, ended in divorce in 2001.

Winslet has one child from her marriage with Threapleton and another from her marriage with Mendes. The statement said both she and Mendes were “fully committed to the future joint parenting of their children.”

It wasn’t clear whether divorce proceedings have begun. Calls and emails seeking comment from Schillings weren’t immediately returned.

Winslet’s breakthrough role was in Peter Jackson’s “Heavenly Creatures,” which traced the obsessive relationship between two girls in 1950s New Zealand.

She went on to run through a number of other stage and film roles — including a memorable turn as Ophelia in Kenneth Branagh’s film adaptation of “Hamlet” — but stardom would not come until James Cameron’s “Titantic,” one of the most commercially successful films in cinematic history.

The film would earn Winslet one of many Academy Award nominations but her first win would not come until 2009, when she scooped the prize for best actress for her role in “The Reader.”

Mendes, an acclaimed stage and film director, won the coveted best-director Oscar for “American Beauty.”

He directed his wife in “Revolutionary Road,” a recent film about a crumbling marriage that reunited Winslet with her “Titanic” co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.

Reviews were largely favourable, but the film failed to set off the same box office fever that made “Titanic” one of the most successful films in history.

In “Revolutionary Road,” Winslet portrayed a suburban housewife who became increasingly bored and desperate with her stay-at-home life. The film won Winslet a Golden Globe for best dramatic actress, and in her acceptance speech she thanked her husband for pushing her so hard.

“Thank you for directing this film, babe, and thank you for killing us every single day and really enjoying us actually being in such horrific pain,” she said last year.

Mendes said at the time that directing his wife had been one of the best experiences of his life, although he said she liked to discuss the movie 24 hours a day while he preferred to do something else, like watch a baseball game, at night when work was done.

Cameron confirms 'Titanic 3D'

Moviemaker James Cameron has confirmed he will bring Titanic back to the big screen in 3D.

The director recently joked about updating the 1997 blockbuster using the same technology, which brought his Oscar-winning epic Avatar to life.

And now he has confirmed he is serious about plans to re-release the historical film in 3D - but the new version won't hit cinemas until 2012, to mark 100 years since the legendary ship sank.

He tells USA Today. "We're targeting spring of 2012 for the release (of a 3D version of Titanic), which is the 100 year anniversary of the sailing of the ship."

Cameron also revealed he will be putting Avatar back into movie theatres by releasing a director's cut later this year.

He adds, "The wildcard is that we might be re-releasing the movie this fall. It's kind of gotten stomped out (in theatres since the release) of Alice in Wonderland. The word we're getting back from exhibitors is we probably left a couple of hundred million dollars on the table as a result. The question is the appetite still going to be there after the summer glut of movies. We're going to assess that. We're talking about maybe adding in additional footage and doing something creative."

Avatar made movie history this year by overtaking Titanic as the best-selling international movie release of all time.

A wonderland of 'Alice'

With Tim Burton's 3-D version a hit in theaters, a raft of vintage takes on the Lewis Carroll work are now available on DVD.

More than a children's classic, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," the 1865 book by Lewis Carroll, is ground zero for a multi-tentacled media franchise that has been going strong for nearly 150 years.

The Victorian forebear of a variety of 20th century artistic movements, drug cultures and fashion trends, it has inspired untold authors and musicians, served as the basis for dozens of film and television versions, and been tailored and twisted to fit almost every narrative form imaginable, from musical theater to soft-core porn to video game.

Tim Burton's 3-D "Alice," which opened March 5, has brought with it a DVD deluge of earlier adaptations. New and upcoming releases include an improbably star-studded 1933 Hollywood production with Cary Grant, Gary Cooper and many others (Universal, $19.98); Disney's animated take from 1951 (a two-disc "un-anniversary" edition, $29.99); a 1966 version made for British television with Peter Sellers, John Gielgud and Michael Redgrave (BBC Warner, $14.98); an NBC TV movie from 1999 with Ben Kingsley, Miranda Richardson and Whoopi Goldberg (Vivendi, $19.93); and a miniseries that aired on the SyFy Channel last year with a somewhat oddball cast including Kathy Bates, Tim Curry and Harry Dean Stanton (Lionsgate, $19.98).

Besides attesting to the caliber of actors who have ended up in "Alice" projects over the years, the various productions suggest how malleable Carroll's fable has always been. Though far from a classic, the upbeat 1951 Disney animated version remains the standard bearer for a kid-friendly "Alice."

The black-and-white British TV film, directed by Jonathan Miller at the height of the Swinging '60s and featuring a Ravi Shankar score, avoids the expected psychedelic clichés, reveling in subtler druggy atmospherics.

The recent miniseries, in which a modern-day Alice is a martial-arts expert, fits with the ongoing revisionist vogue for empowered Alices. (In Burton's film, she's 19 and more action heroine than passive visitor.)

The most satisfying of all the reissues, the 1933 "Alice in Wonderland" -- actually the second sound-era "Alice," after an obscure 1931 version -- is reasonably faithful to the original and, as such, gratifyingly weird. Combining elements of "Alice's Adventures" and its 1872 sequel "Through the Looking-Glass," the film was directed by the unheralded Norman McLeod; in almost every other respect, though, it was an A-list endeavor.

The screenplay is credited to Joseph L. Mankiewicz and William Cameron Menzies, both of whom would become important filmmakers in their own right. Menzies, already an Oscar-winning art director, was also responsible for the off-kilter sets and visual tricks.

The cast includes W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty, Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle, Gary Cooper as the White Knight and Edward Everett Horton as the Mad Hatter.

It would be misleading, though, to say that the film is full of recognizable faces, since most of the actors are masked, suited and heavily made up (in the spirit of the indelible original illustrations by John Tenniel). The actors get into the romper-room spirit that an "Alice" production invariably induces, but the film's real pleasure is in the ingenuity of its old-school effects.

Of the other screen adaptations of "Alice," the one that stands furthest apart from the pack is the 1998 stab by the master Czech animator Jan Svankmajer, a combination of live action and stop-motion animation in which the dream logic of Carroll's story shifts decisively to nightmare. (It's available on DVD through First Run Features, $29.95.)

And then, of course, there are the countless works that have simply been inspired by Carroll's Alice. There are traces of her wild trip in films such as Jacques Rivette's 1974 masterpiece "Celine and Julie Go Boating," in which two Parisian friends wander into a mansion whose occupants are stuck in an eternal loop, and Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006), about a girl who discovers a fantasy underworld during the Spanish Civil War. "Alice in Wonderland" is also the founding text for alternate-reality tales such as "The Matrix" and "Lost."

It's no wonder that Carroll's premise has proved so endlessly inspiring. In some ways, it is the most open-ended of templates. All versions of the Alice story are defined by that thrilling initial breach: down the rabbit hole, through the looking glass. What exactly we find on the other side remains up for grabs.

Corey Haim funeral not city-funded: Toronto

The city of Toronto has denied claims that actor Corey Haim's funeral Tuesday will be paid for by taxpayers.

The Toronto actor's mother, Judy Haim, made the claim that the city would cover funeral costs in an interview Sunday with the U.S. TV program Access Hollywood.

The city has a fund to cover funerals of the destitute — but it provides for only a minimal funeral.

Toronto city spokesman Kevin Sack said Monday the city had not even received an application to the fund.

On Monday, Haim's family was also backing down from a claim that the city will pay for his funeral.

The private funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Steeles Memorial Chapel in Toronto.

A private memorial fund has been set up to help Haim's mother pay for funeral expenses. It is reported to have raised close to $20,000.

Toronto-born Haim, star of Lost Boys and Lucas, died last Wednesday at age 38.

The Los Angeles coroner's office has not released a cause of death, but said prescription drug bottles were found in Haim's Beverly Hills, Calif., apartment.

Haim's career had flagged, although he had take several film roles in the past few years.

Larry David working on 8th round of "Curb Your Enthusiasm"

Larry David says he is working on "some stuff" for an eighth season of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," which we presume means there will be an eighth season.

"I think there's a pretty good chance," for another season, the "Curb" creator and star told about 2,000 fans who'd paid good money to breathe the same air as David and "Curb" cast members Sunday night at the Paley Center's annual TV festival in Beverly Hills, Calif.

"It's not definite yet, but we're working on some stuff," he said, including the return of house guest Leon, played by J.B. Smoove.

David, never one to share information, seemed to check out about one minute into the evening when the moderator, Los Angeles Times television editor Martin Miller, asked whether there would be another "Seinfeld" reunion on "Curb."

"There will be no more 'Seinfeld' references on the show. 'Seinfeld' questions are probably not appropriate," David said icily.

Unlike earlier nights in the PaleyFest at which fans of other TV shows have been showered with affection and gratitude by those on stage, "Curb" fans had to scavenge for crumbs.

When one ticket-holder noted "Curb" has a lot of jokes about race and ethnicity and wondered whether David's trying to tell people we need to be able to laugh at ourselves, series regular Bob Einstein, who plays Marty Funkhouser on the unscripted comedy series, asked, "Are you armed?"

"Yes, I feel it's important to laugh at ourselves," David all-but-sneered. "After all there are some black people and some white people -- if we could only recognize our differences."

Most of the evening focused on two things: how much everyone up on stage hates to rehearse or memorize lines, and how weary they are of fans who do and/or say shocking things in their presence that are entirely in keeping with the shocking behavior of the characters they play on the show, and who enthusiastically pitch them episode ideas. Cast member/executive producer Jeff Garlin said he's been pitched ideas by thousands of people and "I've never heard one funny one."

Even so, one brave ticket-holder in the audience wondered whether David would continue to drive a Toyota Prius in future episodes. David said he took the guy's point. Another courageous audience member asked whether David and his made-for TV-wife, played by Cheryl Hines, would get back together this season, with the clear understanding it was what she hoped. Acting uncharacteristically publicity minded, David said, "I think so."

Miller got off to a bad start with David when the Paley Center showed a compendium of clips from the show before the interview, giving Miller the idea he should kick things off by noting how great those clips looked on a big screen and wondering whether we would see a movie version of "Curb" any time soon.

"I don't think so," David said frostily.

Miller then dove straight into the "Seinfeld' reunion question and, after David hit him between the eyes on that one, tried to get some time to recover by asking the cast members if they would each recount how they came to be on the show.

"Well, I know Jerry Seinfeld," joked Einstein, who knows road kill when he sees it.

A short while later, Miller made like a lemming and dove off the "Seinfeld" cliff again, as he started to blah, blah, blah about David having recently appeared on Jerry Seinfeld's NBC reality series "The Marriage Ref."

"We're here to talk about 'Curb', Martin," David responded testily.

News Corp to net $350-400 million from "Avatar": report

(Reuters) – Rupert Murdoch's News Corp will earn $350 million to $400 million from James Cameron's blockbuster "Avatar," once the movie is released on pay television and DVD, Bloomberg said, citing two people with knowledge of the financial performance.

The amount represents News Corp's about 40 percent share of as much as $1 billion that the film is expected to earn for its Twentieth Century Fox and "Avatar" investors, the people told the agency.

News Corp's share amounts to almost half of its average quarterly operating profit in the past year, according to the agency.

Fox's "Avatar," which ended up with three Oscars, fell two places to No. 7 with $6.6 million in its 13th week. Its North American total rose to $730 million and its worldwide tally to $2.6 billion.

In February, News Corp had said 50 percent or more of the profit from the James Cameron-directed film would show up over the next two or more quarters.