The Anthony Hopkins horror film "The Rite" topped the box office this weekend, but some of the best news came for lower-budget movies that benefited from Tuesday's Oscar nominations.

"The King's Speech," "True Grit," "Black Swan" and "The Fighter" all saw very strong ticket sales, no doubt due to the multiple Academy Award nominations they received.

 "The Rite," from Warner Bros.' New Line Cinema label, had a so-so start of $15 million, according to studio estimates. Thanks to its older star, it played to a broader audience than the typical young-skewing horror film, with 64% of moviegoers older than 25. They gave it an average grade of B, according to market research firm CinemaScore.

That's good news for New Line, signaling that the $37-million production might hold on well for several weeks in theaters.

The studio marketed the movie aggressively to Latinos and that showed in its results. The highest-grossing theater in the country was in El Paso, Texas.

"The Mechanic," the other new movie playing nationwide this weekend, opened to a decent $11.5 million. That's higher than Jason Statham's last violent vehicle, 2009's "Crank: High Voltage," which debuted to only $6.9 million, and in line with 2008's "Transporter 3," which launched to $12.1 million.

The male-heavy audience gave the film a B-. CBS Films paid only about $5 million for domestic distribution rights to the picture.

With no new movies appealing to young woman, last weekend's No. 1 picture, "No Strings Attached," saw a modest drop of just 31%. The Natalie Portman-Ashton Kutcher romantic comedy took in $13.7 million, increasing its total to $39.7 million.

It wasn't far ahead of "The King's Speech," which after receiving more Oscar nominations than any other movie expanded to 2,557 theaters from 1,680 theaters and took in a healthy $11.1 million. The Weinstein Co. release has now grossed $72.2 million, a very strong number for a historical drama. The studio revamped its marketing campaign following the announcement of its 12 Oscar nominations to focus on broad themes of friendship in hopes of drawing a very mainstream audience.

"True Grit," which got 10 nominations, achieved the rare feat of increasing ticket sales despite decreasing the number of theaters in which it played. The western directed by the Coen brothers grew 4% to $7.6 million, increasing its box office total to $148.4 million.

The boxing drama "The Fighter," which landed seven nominations, fell just 3% to $4.1 million, bringing its total receipts to $78.4 million.

"Black Swan," which had five nominations, declined only 13% to $5.1 million. Already a big hit before the Oscars, the young-skewing psychological drama is now at $90.1 million.

Not every movie benefited tremendously from a best picture nomination, however. Fox Searchlight re-released "127 Hours," starring James Franco, at 916 theaters and took in a soft $2.1 million. Its total box office receipts stand at an unimpressive $13.4 million.

Lionsgate opened "From Prada to Nada," the first Hispanic-targeted movie from its Pantelion joint venture from Televisa, at 256 theaters and took in a decent $1.1 million. Los Angeles was the biggest market for the female-skewing comedy.

In limited release, the Mexican drama "Biutiful" starring Javier Bardem, which got two Oscar nominations, opened to a so-so $460,916 at 57 theaters. Along with a brief run in late December to qualify for the Oscars, its box office total is now $623,226.

It was a slow weekend overall, due in part to heavy snow in the Northeast. Total ticket sales declined 13% from the same weekend a year ago, according to Hollywood.com.

[Update, 11:01 a.m.: Here at the top 10 movies at the domestic box office, along with foreign ticket sales when available, according to studio estimates and Hollywood.com:

1. "The Rite" (Warner Bros./New Line): Opened to $15 million.

2. "No Strings Attached" (Paramount/Spyglass/Cold Spring): $13.7 million on its second weekend, down 31%. Domestic total: $39.7 million.

3. "The Green Hornet" (Sony): $11.5 million on its third weekend, down 35%. Domestic total: $78.8 million. $15.7 million overseas in 64 foreign markets. International total: $61 million.

3. "The Mechanic" (CBS): Opened to $11.5 million.

5. "The King's Speech" (Weinstein Co.): $11.1 million on its tenth weekend, up 41%. Domestic total: $72.2 million.

6. "True Grit" (Paramount/Skydance): $7.6 million on its sixth weekend, up 4%. Domestic total: $148.4 million. $2.3 million overseas in one foreign market: Australia.

7. "The Dilemma" (Universal/Spyglass): $5.5 million on its third weekend, down 40%. Domestic total: $40.6 million. $4 million overseas in 21 foreign markets. International total: $11 million.

8. "Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight): $5.1 million on its ninth weekend, down 13%. Domestic total: $90.7 million. $11.4 million overseas in 16 foreign markets. International total: $29.1 million.

9. "The Fighter" (Relativity/Paramount): $4.1 million on its eighth weekend, down 3%. Domestic total: $78.4 million.

10. "Yogi Bear" (Warner Bros.): $3.2 million on its seventh weekend, down 17%. Domestic total: $92.5 million. $6.9 million overseas in 26 foreign markets. International total: $33.6 million.]

-- Ben Fritz

 Top photo: Anthony Hopkins in "The Rite." Credit: Egon Endrenyi / New Line Cinema. Bottom photo: Jeff Bridges and Hallee Steinfeld in "True Grit." Credit: Lorey Sebastian / Paramount Pictures.

As far as partnerships go, this one is for the birds. Literally.

20th Century Fox struck a deal to bring the domesticated macaw and other feathered characters from its forthcoming big-screen animated film, "Rio," to one of the most popular mobile game applications for the small screen, Angry Birds.

The Finnish creators of Angry Birds will release a version of the game -- Angry Birds Rio -- to coincide with the film's March 22 world premiere in Rio. The movie opens in theaters April 15.

On Friday, Fox Filmed Entertainment co-Chairman Jim Gianopulos announced the partnership with game developer Rovio in a press event on the Fox studio lot in Century City under a tent with giant beach balls. The studio also screened 26 minutes of footage, introduced by director Carlos Saldanha and voice stars Jamie Foxx, Anne Hathaway and George Lopez.

Fox hopes to tap into the pop-culture phenomenon that is Angry Birds (downloaded some 75 million times and counting) to build awareness for its latest animated project from Blue Sky Studios, creators of the "Ice Age" blockbusters.

Rovio, meanwhile, gets to introduce a new version of the game (using Blue Sky's intellectual property), and capitalize on the marketing blitz that is planned for the theatrical release.

"It's about taking that traditional entertainment experience -- whether in theaters or on the TV screen -- and creating a new level of engagement," said Peter Levinsohn, president of new media and digital distribution for 20th Century Fox.

Levinsohn's group has been been working to find logical digital extensions of Fox's entertainment properties. For example, it created a "Glee" karaoke app that lets Gleeks sing along with songs from the popular Fox TV show, or connect with other Glee fans online for a virtual recording session.

 -- Dawn C. Chmielewski

Photo: "Rio" voice actors Jamie Foxx, left, and George Lopez at Friday's press event for the animated film. Credit: Alex J. Berliner.

Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Robert A. Iger commanded a 35% jump in salary and bonuses in 2010, rewarding what the board of directors' compensation committee called his "exceptional performance" in the face of a slow-recovering U.S. economy.

Iger's salary and bonus reached nearly $16.3 million, up from $12 million a year earlier. His total compensation, including equity awards, reached $28 million, according to the company's proxy filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The board's compensation committee said Iger managed to deliver a strong financial performance for the company. It noted that three of Disney's cable channels -- Disney Channel, ESPN and ABC Family -- delivered record ratings, and two feature films, "Alice in Wonderland," starring Johnny Depp, and Pixar Animation's "Toy Story 3," reaped $1 billion in global box-office receipts.

The labor union representing hourly workers at the Disneyland Resort hotels has taken issue with Iger's pay and bonuses and has attempted to give Disney shareholders a greater voice in executive compensation.

Disney's head of strategic planning, Kevin A. Mayer, collected a 42.5% hike in his salary and bonus to $2.3 million. Including equity awards, his compensation reached $4.1 million, which the compensation committee said recognizes his role in completing Disney's $4-billion acquisition of Marvel Entertainment in late 2009 and identifying new acquisitions, such as the social gaming company Playdom, for which Disney paid $563.2 million in July.  

The entertainment giant reported net income of nearly $4 billion for fiscal 2010, a gain of 20% over the previous year. Revenue reached $38 billion, up 5% from fiscal 2009. The company's stock flirted with a 10-year high of $40 this month after a trio of favorable analyst reports noted that theme park spending was on the rebound and the revenue picture was improving at Disney's cable networks.

Disney's stock closed Friday at $38.85, down 61 cents.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski 

A federal district court judge in New York sentenced Yonni Sebbag to 27 months in prison Friday for his role in an an insider-trading scheme in which he and an assistant to a Walt Disney Co. executive attempted to sell advance information about the media company's quarterly earnings.

Sebbag sent letters to multiple hedge funds and investment companies last March, offering to sell pre-release details about Disney's financial results, which he obtained from his then-girlfriend, Bonnie Hoxie. She gained access to the quarterly statement while working as an assistant to Disney's head of corporate communications, Zenia Mucha.

Hoxie, 34, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 22 for her role in the scheme.

"Yonni Sebbag concocted a brazen scheme to exploit his access to valuable, non-public information by attempting to sell it to would-be investors," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement. "Sebbag is only the latest person to learn the hard way that trying to earn a quick buck through insider trading will earn you a prison sentence instead."

District Court Judge Kimba M. Wood also ordered Sebbag to forfeit the $15,000 he received from an undercover FBI agent who posed as a Wall Street trader interested in obtaining the information.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

 
 
If you thought it was getting more expensive to go the movies, your hunch was right. The average ticket price at theaters in the U.S. last year rose to an all-time annual high of $7.89,  up 5% from $7.50 in 2009, according to the National Assn. of Theatre Owners. In the fourth quarter, the average price was $8.01, up 5% from the year-ago period.

That may seem unusually low to people in L.A., where ticket prices are typically much higher, but the figure represents a national average of theaters in big cities and small towns alike, and includes lower-priced matinees and children's prices.

NATO spokesman Patrick Corcoran attributed the increase primarily to the increase in 3-D screenings, which can add $2.50 to $4 to the ticket price. Hollywood is expected to release about 35 3-D films this year, and theater owners are rushing to add 3-D screens to handle the growth. Just this week, Regal Entertainment, the nation's largest theater operator, announced that it would double its number of RealD 3-D screens.

All of which means ticket prices are likely to continue to rise. One AMC Theatres location in New York last summer raised eyebrows when it was selling $20 tickets for Imax 3-D screenings of the DreamWorks Animation movie "Shrek Forever After."

The rise in ticket prices came in a year when box office was virtually flat with the prior year, reaching $10.6 billion in revenue, while attendance dropped 5.3% compared with 2009.

Still, Corcoran downplayed the effect of ticket inflation on attendance, noting that the 2010 increase is “not way out of line” with those of the last five years and that prices are still below what they were in 1970 when inflation is factored in. Then, the average ticket price was $1.55, or $8.71 when adjusted for inflation.

Corcoran attributed the drop in attendance to fewer movies being released and to fewer hits in the latter part of the year. 

"People aren't staying away because of ticket prices,'' Corcoran said, "they are staying away because of the movies."

-- Richard Verrier

Photo: Moviegoers crowd at the AMC Burbank 16 theater on a Friday night. Photo credit: Ringo H.W. Chiu / For the Los Angeles Times

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Comcast Corp. hasn't even officially closed on its deal to take control of NBC Universal yet, but a prominent media analyst says its time for the company to make its next move.

In a report released Friday morning, BTIG's Rich Greenfield said Comcast should buy the pay TV channel Starz from Liberty Media as a strike against Netflix and to compete against Time Warner's HBO and CBS's Showtime. He values Starz at $4.4 billion, but because $1.2 billion of that is cash on the company's books, the net cost to Comcast would be $3.2 billion.

Greenfield notes that the deal Universal Pictures has with HBO expires in a few years and he thinks that if Comcast owned Starz and shifted those movies there, it would build more value for the company. Starz currently has deals with Disney and Sony for their movies. Greenfield suggested that Comcast drop Sony and keep Disney because it has more family films.

While many industry observers think original content is a key component going forward because there are so many platforms for theatrical releases once they are done playing at the multiplex, Greenfield wrote that "we believe the value of movie content in the pay TV window will rise over the next few years" and added that while HBO gets acclaim for its original fare, movies "still represent the largest percentage of weekly viewership for the channel."

As for Netflix, Greenfield said Comcast could weaken them by buying Starz and then not renewing the deal that the pay channel has with Netflix when it expires next year. Comcast, he added, could use its new library of NBC Universal fare to try to create its own competitor to Netflix.

Comcast could, of course, try to start its own pay channel but Greenfield rightly points out that would take years to build, especially because no studio tie-in deals are opening up for a few years.

-- Joe Flint

After the coffee. Before heading off to Dallas for Super Bowl week! Well, I can dream, can't I?

The Skinny: Got to hand it to the folks at "30 Rock," they managed to make a joke about General Electric not controlling NBC Universal anymore in Thursday night's episode, the very day that Comcast held company-wide meetings to introduce themselves. Elsewhere, Charlie Sheen

Gift bags! Comcast hosted town hall meetings to welcome their new NBC Universal employees around the country, and came bearing gifts. NBC Universal staffers got 25 shares of Comcast stock, while Comcast folks got passes to Universal theme parks. Not sure who got the better deal there. One of Comcast's first moves was to take NBC's peacock logo off the stationary. But before you start crying about the peacock getting plucked, it still has its day job as NBC's on-air logo! The Los Angeles Times looks at the culture shock that may come from Comcast's takeover and whether Universal Studios chief Ron Meyer will be on the hot seat. Additional coverage from the Associated Press and Variety.

Reunited? Jeff Zucker finishes up as CEO of NBC Universal on Friday, and already talk is heating up that he wants to woo Katie Couric away from CBS News to try her hand at a daily talk show that he would oversee. The New York Post says it has three sources saying Zucker is working big-time on wooing Couric, who he used to oversee at NBC's "Today." My money's on Couric staying put at CBS. After all, the network just made this very nice video of everyone there, including CBS CEO Leslie Moonves singing to her on her birthday. If that doesn't say we love you, what does?

Briefcase full of blues. Charlie Sheen went to the hospital early Thursday morning. While his spokesman -- who I hope gets a big paycheck -- said he was suffering from stomach pains and possibly a hernia, TMZ (who else?), said he was rushed to the hospital after a night with porn stars and party favors. Because Sheen's hit CBS sitcom, "Two and a Half Men," was on hiatus, he didn't miss any work. And because the show was on hiatus, CBS and Warner Bros., which produces the show, could once again play ostrich. Here's the thing: The fear of the producers and network is that if they shut the show down until Sheen gets it together, he could sue because technically he's doing his job and honoring his contract. I say, let him sue. He'll lose in the court of public opinion (and probably with a jury as well), and if, God forbid, something tragic happens to Sheen or someone with him, the folks behind the show will be blasted for enabling him all this time and could be vulnerable to lawsuits themselves. 

Getting clean and singing about it. Sometimes rehab can be a good career move (are you listening, Charlie Sheen?). The Wall Street Journal looks at musicians who cleaned up their bodies and minds and cleaned up with critics and in sales. Of course, for everyone who did that, there's one -- hello, Keith Richards -- who manages to keep cranking it out while still living to extremes.

Stop the presses! Vanity Fair will not be running an article probing the problems at the Motion Picture and Television Fund's long-term care facility. The Wrap reports that the article, which was supposed to be in the magazine's Hollywood issue that hits newsstands next week, is being held. It's the second article planned for the edition that was pulled, the first being a piece on -- yawn -- the battles between the Hollywood Reporter, Deadline Hollywood and the Wrap. With that one, perhaps Vanity Fair realized that it's sometimes good to have articles that more than 20 people will care to read.

Inside the Los Angeles Times: Ben Fritz has the preview of the box office for this weekend.

-- Joe Flint

Follow me on Twitter. Or Don't. See if I care. Twitter.com/JBFlint

Two new movies will compete against a royal rival this weekend.

“The King’s Speech,” which just scooped up 12 Oscar nominations, is expanding its run and is expected to contend for the top box-office spot alongside a pair of new releases: “The Rite,” starring Anthony Hopkins, and the Jason Statham action vehicle “The Mechanic.”

Pre-release surveys indicate that “The Rite” is most likely to win the weekend with ticket sales of $15 million to $20 million, with most interest coming from adult males. That would be a decent but not great start, given that Warner Bros.’ movie unit New Line Cinema spent $37 million to produce the picture.

“The Mechanic” is the fourth release from CBS Films, the struggling 1-year-old mini-studio that’s still awaiting its first hit. The remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson movie appears unlikely to fit that bill, though it probably won’t flop either.

CBS paid only about $5 million for rights to distribute the picture domestically, which is expected to open at about $10 million.

After getting more Academy Award nominations than any other movie Tuesday, Weinstein Co.’s “The King’s Speech” jumped from the No. 3 movie in ticket sales to No. 2 on Tuesday, behind “No Strings Attached,” and became the most popular film on Web ticket seller Fandango. On Friday its run will grow to about 2,500 theaters from 1,680, giving it a good shot at grossing more than $10 million this weekend for the first time.

Several other movies with best picture nominations will also expand their presence this weekend. “127 Hours,” which has been playing in fewer than 100 theaters for the last month, will jump to nearly 1,000. Distributor Fox Searchlight is hoping to boost the meager $11.3-million box-office total of the low-budget drama starring James Franco.

And Roadside Attractions is rereleasing the dark independent drama “Winter’s Bone,” which reached only $6.3 million in ticket sales last summer, at a handful of theaters in big cities including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. Because the film is already out on DVD, its theatrical prospects are limited.

This weekend will also see the first movie release from Pantelion, a joint venture between Lions Gate Entertainment and Mexican media giant Televisa to make pictures for Latino audiences. The comedy “From Prada to Nada” debuts in 256 theaters, in cities with large Latino populations.

-- Ben Fritz

Top photo: Anthony Hopkins in "The Rite." Credit: Egon Edrenyi / New Line Cinema. Bottom photo: Jason Statham in "The Mechanic." Credit: Patti Perret

Film financing and production company Relativity Media has brought in former Paramount Pictures executive Steve Bertram for the dual role of chief operating officer and chief financial officer.

He is partially replacing former Chief Financial Officer Bill Sutman, who is leaving the company. Former Chief Ooperating Officer Andrew Marcus, meanwhile, was recently named president of corporate development and strategy.

Bertram previously served as president of business operations for Paramount's home entertainment unit. Before that he was chief financial officer of DreamWorks, where he helped negotiate its sale to Paramount.

He is one of several senior executives who have recently joined Relativity, which continues to be led by Chief Executive Ryan Kavanaugh, as it transitions from exclusively co-financing movies at other studios to producing and releasing its own pictures.

In May, former Universal Executive Vice President Michael Joe joined Relativity as its president.

-- Ben Fritz

Nintendo on Thursday gave further evidence that the momentum for its Wii and DS game consoles has slowed.

The Japanese gaming company now says it expects to sell 22.5 million DS portable devices and 16 million Wii consoles for its fiscal year ending March 31. It had previously expected to sell 23.5 million DS's and 17.5 million Wii's.

Offsetting the decline in device sales, however, is an expected increase in the sale of games sold for those systems. The company said it expected to sell 135 million games for DS, up from 125 million previously estimated, and 170 million Wii games, up from 138 million.

Nintendo in general makes a bigger profit on games than on consoles.

Overall, however, Nintendo's sales were down from a year earlier. Sales of the DS fell 33% during the first nine months of Nintendo's fiscal year, which started April 1. It sold 15.7 million DS consoles in that period, compared to 23.35 million a year earlier. Sales of DS games slumped 18% to 98.9 million copies, down from 121.4 million a year earlier.

The Wii also saw a significant downturn in sales. Sales of the console fell 20% to 13.7 million units from the previous year, while Wii game sales fell 4% to 150.5 million copies.

The decrease in sales, plus a sharply rising Japanese yen, clobbered Nintendo's earnings. For the first nine months of its fiscal year ended Dec. 31, revenue fell 32% to 808 billion yen, or $9.8 billion. Net income tumbled 74% to 49.6 billion yen, or $603.1 million. Nintendo estimated that it lost roughly $1 billion from foreign exchange losses due to the strong yen. A year earlier, a weaker yen led to a $121.7-million gain in income.

Nintendo is betting that a strong debut of its newest portable console, the 3DS, will help spark sales. The device, expected to be released March 27 for $249.99, will have competition for the Christmas holidays later this year, when Sony Corp. said it will release its latest portable console, code-named the NGP.

-- Alex Pham

Related:

Sony doubles down on portable gaming, introduces NGP and games for Android

Once-hot Nintendo Wii now struggling for sales

Nintendo 3DS could be hazardous to children under 6

Photo: Satoru Iwata, Nintendo chief executive, holding a 3DS prototype at E3 in 2010. Credit: Alex Pham / Los Angeles Times

Beverly Hills movie technology company RealD Inc. is getting a big boost from the nation's largest theater operator.

In an agreement announced Thursday, Regal Entertainment Group said it will double the number of RealD 3-D screens, to 3,000 from 1,500, or about 40% of its 6,698 screens in the U.S. The rollout is expected to be completed by June. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"We continue to see high demand from moviegoers for RealD's premium 3-D viewing experience,'' Amy Miles, chief executive of Regal Entertainment, said in a statement.

RealD's equipment -- adapters that fit onto digital projectors and convert images to stereoscopic viewing -- is licensed to about 9,300 theater screens worldwide.

The company, which had a successful public stock offering last summer, has been expanding rapidly in response to growing demand for 3-D films. Hollywood is releasing about 35 3-D films this year, compared with 22 last year.

RealD shares closed at $25.69, up 76 cents Thursday.

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3-D technology firm has starring role

 -- Richard Verrier

NBC's proud peacock won't be strutting quite so much.

One of Comcast Corp.'s first acts, as it takes control of NBC Universal this week, was to pluck the colorful peacock from the corporate logo.

The peacock, which has been NBC's mascot since 1956, will continue to unfurl on air as the symbol of the NBC broadcast network and cable news channels MSNBC and CNBC. So most viewers won't recognize the bird's abrupt downgrade.

Since 2004, when NBC acquired the Universal assets, the NBC Universal logo has been a peacock within a circle to signify the merged companies: NBC (the peacock), and the spinning planet that has long been Universal's logo. 

"It seemed kind of busy," NBC Universal Chief Executive Steve Burke told employees during a town-hall meeting Thursday afternoon in New York, which was moderated by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams. 

Outgoing NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker struggled to deemphasize the importance of peacock broadcast network as its fortunes plummeted during the last six years. But that was always difficult, in large part, because NBC was part of the company's name and heritage and was the logo.

Now it looks like the Peacock may be slowly shuffled off to the retirement home where it can reminiscence about the glory days with Nipper, the dog that was the mascot of RCA, a former owner of NBC.

-- Meg James

Top image: NBCUniversal's new logo and spelling, which was unveiled Thursday.

Bottom image: NBC Universal's former logo with the peacock tucked inside.