It wasn't so much a clash as it was a rout.

Warner Bros. 3-D "Clash of the Titans" stormed to the top of the box office, taking in an estimated $61.4 million this weekend. The movie, which cost about $122 million and was co-produced and co-financed by Legendary Pictures, easily dominated its box-office competition. About 52% of the movie's box office came from 3-D ticket sales.

"If there was a battle out there, victory is ours," declared Dan Fellman, Warner Bros.' president of domestic distribution.

Projections for "Clash of the Titans" were that it would have a weekend take of between $60 million and $70 million. While it certainly met those numbers, it also dropped nearly 20% from Friday's box office of almost $26.4 million to Saturday's $21.6 million. The CinemaScore for the movie was a B, so the word of mouth on the movie was generally good. Perhaps competition from the NCAA Final Four basketball games or all those geeks standing in line to buy iPads played a part in the drop between Friday and Saturday.

Fellman said the studio was actually anticipating a bigger Saturday drop -- in the neighborhood of 25%. "The audience reaction has been terrific."

The $61.4-million opening is the biggest ever for Easter Weekend, easily beating "Scary Movie 4," which took in $40.2 million in 2006. Of course, any comparison has to take into consideration inflation and the more expensive 3-D tickets.

"Clash of the Titans" actually started screening on Thursday and took in about $2.6 million. Internationally, "Clash of the Titans" took in $44.2 million, 55% of which was generated by 3-D ticket sales.

Coming in second this weekend was Tyler Perry's "Why Did I Get Married Too," from Lionsgate, which took in $30.1 million. For Perry, it is his biggest opening for one of his movies that didn't feature his Madea character. The movie beat projections and outperformed the first "Why Did I Get Married" by almost $10 million.

"I always underestimate his box office," cracked Dan Spitz, executive vice president of distribution for Lionsgate. Perry's movie played strongest to his core audience of African American women over the age of 25. Just imagine the box office if he ever does a movie in 3-D.

All the concern about the opening number for DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon" being soft may have been for naught. The 3-D movie took in $29.2 million in its second weekend, a drop of only 33% from its first weekend of $43.7 million and good enough for third place. That the drop is under 40% is a very good sign that the movie may have some legs.

"We knew that really strong reviews and word of mouth would propel the movie," said Anne Globe, head of worldwide marketing for DreamWorks Animation. Even more impressive was that the box office actually went up 1% from Friday to Saturday. Abroad, the movie took in $38.5 million; it has made almost $100 million overseas.

Miley Cyrus' romantic movie "The Last Song" took in $16.2 million for the weekend; its five-day take is $25.6 million.

"Miley competed in the land of giants and did well," said Chuck Viane, president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios.

Rounding out the top five was Disney's "Alice in Wonderland." Despite playing in fewer 3-D screens this weekend, the movie still took in $8.3 million, and Viane projects it will top $325 million in domestic box office.

-- Joe Flint

Photos: Top: "Clash of the Titans." Credit: Associated Press / Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Bottom: "Why Did I Get Married Too." Credit: Quantrell Colbert

It is pretty rare to hear a former government official talk openly about playing favorites among industries while making regulatory policy, but that is exactly what Reed Hundt, a chairman of the Federal Communications Commission during the Clinton administration, did in a recent speech.

Speaking at Columbia University a few weeks ago about the growth of broadband and the decline of broadcast as platforms, Hundt said when he was head of the FCC the decision was made to "favor the Internet over broadcast" as the common medium of the country. One of the reasons he cited was because broadcasting "had become a threat to democracy," although after dropping that bomb he declined to elaborate on it.

Hundt's FCC, he said, "actually did a lot of things between 1994 and 1997" to clear the way for broadband to become a successor to broadcast television. Hundt's speech first came to our attention from TV NewsCheck, a television industry website. (If you want to watch the speech for yourself, here's a link to his remarks.)

The big thing Hundt said his FCC did was "to allow the computers to use the telephone network to connect to the Internet ... and to do it for free. In other words we stole the value of the telephone network ... and gave it to society." Hundt called it "state-sanctioned theft" of the telephone network. His FCC also made sure that Internet commerce would not be taxed.

Conversely, Hundt said his FCC delayed the broadcast transition to high definition, which, he acknowledged, was "a little naughty."

Hundt said broadcast had served the country very well, but his FCC decided that the Internet was a "fundamentally richer medium" that was going to provide a "better way for people to have access to information."

Many of Hundt's team are at the FCC today, including Chairman Julius Genachowski, who served as a top advisor for Hundt. Genachowski recently laid out the agency's national broadband plan, which has many broadcasters worried because he wants the industry to return some digital spectrum, and they think that just might be a little naughty too.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: Reed Hundt in 1997 when he was head of FCC. Credit: Brian K. Diggs / Associated Press.

Leverage is a hot commodity in any negotiation. If you are the star of a big TV show and your deal is up but the contract for the show itself isn't, you have leverage.

However, if you are the star of a big TV show whose contract is up but whose personal life is in some disarray and you have an expensive lifestyle and likely face some pretty big legal bills, perhaps you don't have as much leverage as you think.

Charlie Sheen may be about to find out just how much leverage he has. The star's contract for the CBS hit "Two and a Half Men" is up at the end of this season. Warner Bros., which makes the show for CBS, has a deal with the network for two more seasons. It makes a ton of money off the show in rerun sales but would no doubt like to make more. Two more seasons of the comedy would be a nice bit of gravy. Although some joke that if Sheen leaves the show, it can be renamed "Two Men," he is the star and the reason why the bulk of people tune in each week.

In a normal situation, this one is a no-brainer. Sheen would hold all the cards. But this isn't a normal situation. Warner Bros. and CBS already shortened the number of episodes for this season from 24 to 22 because of Sheen's recent legal issues regarding a Christmas fight with his wife. Losing two episodes may not sound like a lot, but it translates into millions of dollars for both the network and the studio.

In other words, both the network and studio have been pretty good to Sheen.

Sheen is probably going to have some huge expenses as a result of the incident with his wife. There is even the possibility of jail time. He has surely already spent a lot of money. including on his precautionary return to rehab. Maybe now is not the time for a guy, who already makes close to $1 million an episode, to risk gainful employment. Yes, he has a ton of money, but many Hollywood stars tend to burn through their cash pretty quickly.

So far, Sheen's personal problems have not hurt the show's ratings. Whether that remains the case after his legal situation is resolved and his fate determined is another issue. CBS is doing well, but losing the show or Sheen's services from the show would be huge. As already noted, Warner Bros. would also hate to see the show end now because there is still some rerun money to be made.

If Sheen can't reach a new deal with Warner Bros. the question becomes whether CBS is obligated to buy two more seasons of "Two and a Half Men." Typically networks have some sort of protection against a star leaving a show, and one would think CBS does in this case. (If they don't, someone in legal will be looking for work).

CBS and Warner Bros. could try to carry on without Sheen and, who knows, maybe it would work. After all, Sheen jumped in and kept ABC's "Spin City" going when Michael J. Fox had to leave because of his struggle with Parkinson's disease. If the show does go on though, CBS will probably be paying a lot less for it.

None of this is to pass judgment on Sheen, how he lives his life and the choices he has made. There are no doubt many who feel Sheen's bad-boy tendencies should have cost him his job already. The justice system will have its say on that soon enough. Nor is this about whether CBS or Warner Bros. should keep doing business with Sheen. They've made their choice. This is, to borrow from Michael Corleone, strictly business.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: Charlie Sheen on "Two and a Half Men." Credit: Greg Gayne / Associated Press

ABC News laid off business correspondent Betsy Stark on Thursday as part of a wrenching series of cuts in the news division that will ultimately see the departure of a quarter of the staff.

The Emmy-winning correspondent, who joined ABC in 1998, served as the network’s lead reporter covering the economic downturn. Her official bio on ABC News’ website notes that “Stark's ability to make complex financial issues accessible to a general audience is a hallmark of her reporting and has helped distinguish ABC's coverage of business.”

In an e-mail to colleagues Friday, Stark praised her co-workers, saying, “Your talent, your raw intelligence, your commitment to getting it right, your grace under impossible pressure and, at all the times it mattered most, your friendship, have made my years here a privilege.”

She called it “ironic” that one of her final pieces for ABC News was about mid-career professionals forced to reinvent themselves after being laid off.

“They didn’t romanticize the process and neither will I,” she wrote. “But they prove what I believe to be true — that second acts are possible — and it is exciting to consider the possibilities beyond this job that I have loved and which I have worked hard to do well.”

An ABC executive who declined to be named speaking about personnel matters noted that “these are difficult times at a lot of news organizations. Betsy is a terrific reporter and a class act. And these are not easy decisions to make.”

In all, ABC plans to cut between 300 and 400 staffers, including half its domestic correspondent corps, who will be replaced with digital journalists who will shoot and edit their own video. Last week, Los Angeles correspondents Brian Rooney and Lisa Fletcher, and San Francisco correspondent Laura Marquez and Lisa Fletcher were let go as part of severe cuts to the California bureaus. Morose employees in Los Angeles said they expect to be whittled down to a skeleton staff.

-- Matea Gold

Photo credit: ABC News

After the coffee. Before hoping it really is a good Friday.

Is it contract time already? So Thursday afternoon, People.com reported that "Two and a Half Men" star Charlie Sheen is done after this season when his current deal expires. Is the troubled star really ready to call it a day or is this a negotiating ploy? After all, CBS has a deal with Warner Bros. -- which makes the show -- for another couple seasons, meaning that in theory Sheen has some leverage. Already the highest paid sitcom star with a deal that pays him over $800,000 per episode, it may come down to how big a raise CBS and Warner Bros. are willing to fork over. That said, with all the legal issues Sheen is facing, one would think a steady paycheck is pretty important right now. Still want to read more about this? Here's the Wrap's take on the whole thing. 

For all that gushing, they should've been paid. Wednesday night's "Modern Family," which was a valentine to Apple's iPad, was free love. Other than getting some sample iPads for the episode, Apple didn't give any form of compensation for the show; heck, they didn't even give the cast free iPads or buy a spot in the episode. I'm not a huge fan of product placement, but If I were a network or production executive I might wonder why we were giving away advertisements. Everyone thinks money changed hands anyway so what's the difference? More on the episode from the Los Angeles Times. Apple, as Advertising Age notes, has a history of getting freebies from TV.

3-D and greed. Indie Wire's Anne Thompson says some movies belong in 3-D, but the rush to throw a bunch of 3-D movies out there is just the studios getting greedy, as they can charge more for 3-D movies. But if a movie was originally made for 2-D, such as this weekend's "Clash of the Titans," the end result, she writes, is a film that looks "even worse than it probably is."

Uh-oh, now Andrew Cuomo is looking at Comcast-NBC Universal. Five states including New York are now involved in the Justice Department's review of Comcast's proposed deal to take control of NBC Universal. This is actually just par for the course since Comcast has cable systems in these states but we're guessing no one likes the idea of New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo poking around their deal. More from Bloomberg.

Decision day. The Commodities Futures Exchange  Trading Commission (why do I always think of "Trading Places" when I type that?) is supposed to decide Friday on one of the applications to create a movie futures trading market. In other words, a market to bet on box office. The Associated Press with the latest on movie futures trading, which the industry is fighting. 

Must be all those "30 Rock" and "Saturday Night Live" cameos. NBC's "Nightly News" with Brian Williams was the only evening newscast to go up in the ratings for the first quarter. Both ABC's "World News Tonight," which has a new anchor in Diane Sawyer and CBS' "Evening News" with Katie Couric hit new lows. The New York Times tries to make sense of it all.

Bring back Dann Florek! S. Epatha Merkerson is looking to leave NBC's "Law &Order" after almost 20 yeas of playing Lt. Van Buren, says the Hollywood Reporter. It's still up in the air as to whether there will be a 21st season of the show,

Inside the Los Angeles Times: Sarah Palin's Fox News shows has -- big surprise -- some controversy around it. Kenneth Turan on "Clash of the Titans." Box office preview.

-- Joe Flint

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Wednesday's episode of "Modern Family" with its plot about Apple's new iPad might have you wondering if there are rules are regarding product placement and whether networks are required to disclose placement deals to viewers.

The answer to both those questions is yes.

The Federal Communication Commission's sponsorship identification rules say, "when money or other consideration for the airing of program material has been received by or promised to a station, its employees or others, the station must broadcast full disclosure of that fact at the time of the airing of the material, and identify who provided or promised to provide the consideration."

The rule goes on to say that the public should know "who is trying to persuade them with the programming being aired."

In the case of "Modern Family," the end credits simply said "products provided by Apple," not "promotional consideration" given or provided by. "Promotional consideration" usually means some form of compensation was exchanged.

On a side note, to review the end credits we had to go to ABC.com. Hulu did not show the end credits. Wonder if the guilds know about this.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: ABC's "Modern Family." Credit: ABC

Miley Cyrus and Tyler Perry will try to crash the box office this weekend, but they should be no match for a god.

Director Louis Leterrier's remake of "Clash of the Titans," which stars "Avatar's" Sam Worthington as the  Greek mythological hero Perseus, is expected to dominate the box office this weekend, with observers forecasting a weekend take between $60 million and $70 million. A "Titans" opening approaching the premiere of 2007's "300," which grossed $70.9 million for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures in its first weekend, is not impossible.

The new Warner Bros. and Legendary action-adventure story, a $122-million remake of the 1981 film, will go up against Cyrus' tear-jerker "The Last Song" as well as "Why Did I Get Married Too?," Perry's follow-up to his 2007 Janet Jackson relationship comedy, which grossed $55.2 million during its run in the U.S. and Canada.

"Titans," whose release was pushed back by one week as the film was converted from 2-D to 3-D, should benefit from the stereoscopic format and the higher ticket prices (as much as $5 more) that theaters charge for 3-D admissions.The film is tracking strongest among older men, but it's also showing surprisingly strong traction among  younger women.

Meanwhile, Cyrus makes her debut as a lead character in a live-action drama in Disney's "Last Song," which will attempt to continue a mini-hot streak for films based on Nicholas Sparks novels. The romantic drama "Dear John," also based on a book by the bestselling author, opened in February to a solid $30.5 million and has grossed nearly $89 million domestically. Sparks also makes his screenwriting debut with "Last Song."

"Last Song" grossed $5.1 million when Disney rolled it out on Wednesday night, the studio said, with a projected opening in the low $20-million range.

With an estimated premiere in the high $20-million range, Perry's new ensemble comedy from Lionsgate is expected to top the $21.4-million opening of "Why Did I Get Married?" But it will probably fall short of Perry's career-best opening, the $41 million "Madea Goes To Jail" collected in its February 2009 premiere weekend.

Lionsgate is opening the film on Easter weekend with an eye toward capturing a multigenerational African American audience. "Easter time is a great time for Tyler Perry. Families are together during Easter, and it becomes an event: You go to church, then you go see the movie," said Lionsgate production president Michael Paseornek.

He added that although critics used to dismiss Perry's movies, they now understand and appreciate his appeal. “I absolutely think they are being kinder to Tyler," Paseornek says. What's more, he has a slice of the moviegoing public all to himself. "He appeals to an audience that almost no one else is after.”

One key question at the box office this weekend hinges on DreamWorks Animation's "How to Train Your Dragon," the 3-D adventure tale that opened at the low end of expectations last weekend with $43.3 million, a debut that sent DreamWorks stock down 8%.

But the movie drew extremely strong reviews and was given an A grade on CinemaScore, giving some experts confidence that strong word of mouth could draw audiences, and that ticket sales could drop as little as 40% in "Dragon's" second weekend out. With "Clash of the Titans" grabbing as many as 1,800 3-D screens, though, "Dragon" (like "Alice in Wonderland") may not be able to keep the best 3-D auditoriums for long.

-- Steve Zeitchik and John Horn

Top photo: Sam Worthington in "Clash of the Titans." Credit: Warner Bros.

Above right: Miley Cyrus. Credit: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times

Above left: Janet Jackson. Credit: Christopher Polk / Getty Images

2009 was a good year for DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The tireless promoter of 3-D movie technology received an annual salary of just $1 last year, but the value of his total compensation climbed to $23.4 million in 2009 because of stock and option awards he was granted last spring, according to a regulatory filing today. He received virtually no compensation the previous two years, electing not to receive a token salary and waiving stock awards.

The stock payments were awarded under an equity-based employment agreement the company struck with Katzenberg last year that ties his pay to the company's shareholder return.

"This overall compensation package is intended to result in Mr. Katzenberg's total compensation being at approximately the 50th percentile for comparable positions at other entertainment studios,'' the filing stated.

DreamWorks earnings per share climbed 10% last year while its stock price jumped 58%, although its share price fell 12%  this week after a disappointing opening for its latest 3-D film, "How to Train Your Dragon."

-- Richard Verrier

Netflix's popular Instant Watch feature is coming to the iPad, according to sources close to Apple.

The feature lets Netflix subscribers watch from a library of 17,000 movies and TV shows available on demand via the Internet.

The application is considered key in Apple's vision for its 9.7-inch iPad tablet computer as a multimedia entertainment device, not just an overgrown iPod Touch.

Apple declined to comment.

Netflix would not confirm a deal with Apple. "Today is April Fools Day," said Steve Swasey. "Tomorrow is Good Friday. Let’s see what Saturday brings."

Apple is set to launch the iPad on Saturday. Priced between $499 and $829, depending on memory capacity and wireless features, the device has so far received rave reviews, including one from the Wall Street Journal, which called it a "laptop killer." The New York Times reviewed it as a " "goof proof computer."

For Netflix, the decision to add its Instant Watch application to the iPad is a no-brainer. The company has been busy embedding Instant Watch to a number of consumer electronic devices, from the Xbox 360 video game console and the PlayStation 3 to the Sony Dash and LG's Blu-ray Disc players. 

The strategy has played out well for both sides. Netflix is able to reduce its customer churn and acquire some new ones, while the device makers get a killer app that's free to use, at least for the 12.3 million paying subscribers of the mail-order DVD rental service. (Only those who pay for Netflix service can access Instant Watch, which streams the video via the Internet.)

About half of Netflix subscribers have accessed Instant Watch at least once in the quarter ended Dec. 31, according to Netflix's quarterly financial report.

News of its service coming to the iPad pumped up the company's shares by $1.26, or 1.7%, to $75 Thursday.

-- Alex Pham 

NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker just got back to Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), who complained a little over a month ago to the network over how it was offering the Olympics online.

In his letter to NBC dated Feb. 26, Kohl took issue with the network's strategy to offer much of its Olympics coverage online to people who already subscribe to an existing pay television service such as cable or satellite. Kohl, who is chairman of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, did not say he was against the idea of people having to pay to watch the Olympics online, but wondered what stopped NBC from just charging people directly instead of requiring them to already subscribe to a cable or satellite service.

The network's decision, he wrote, raises questions as to "why NBC requires consumers to have pay TV subscriptions in order to access Olympic coverage on-line, rather than offering viewers the opportunity to purchase this select Internet content and in order to collect revenues directly."

In his four-page response, Zucker noted that the fees that cable, satellite and other pay TV providers pay NBC for their cable channels that carry the Olympics help the network foot the bill and have allowed NBC Universal to "consistently increase both the number of ad-supported television hours available on the NBC broadcast networks as well as the number of hours available to subscribers of MVPDs [multichannel video programming distributors]."

Zucker also brings up the ghost of TripleCast in explaining why the network did not create its own pay option online. In 1992, NBC teamed up with Cablevision to offer three channels of pay-per-view Olympics and it was, Zucker wrote, "not successful." Zucker's being kind. It was actually a pretty big flop.

Though it's true that the TripleCast did not work, that was also almost 20 years ago. The big concern of NBC is that it does not want to alienate pay TV distributors by offering a way for consumers to watch content online. There is great concern among distributors that as more programming migrates online, either for free or for pay, consumers will start to cut the chord to their pay TV services.

This issue is only going to heat up as the cable industry rolls out its TV Everywhere initiative. NBC Universal, of course, is in the process of merging with cable and broadband giant Comcast Corp. In his letter to NBC, Kohl wrote that he worried if the network's Olympics online strategy is "a harbinger of things to come" and went on to say, "it is our view that video over the Internet has the potential to become a significant competitive alternative to traditional pay TV subscriptions, and it appears that policies such as the one described in this letter may have the effect of limiting the prospects of such competition."

In other words, this is going to be fun to watch play out.

-- Joe Flint

Related Post: Senator Herb Kohl irked at how NBC is offering Olympics online.