A new Hollywood/science partnership will be unveiled on Wednesday, with TV showrunner Seth McFarlane hosting a symposium to kick off the new exchange of information about topics like climate change, rare and infectious diseases, genomics, artificial intelligence and robotics, and the brain and mind. Specifically, the National Academy of Sciences will announce the Science and Entertainment Exchange to provide the entertainment industry with a one-stop shop for scientific information from the nation's preeminent scientific body. The Exchange's aim is to connect producers, directors, writers and others in need of scientific information for their productions with science, medical and engineering experts. The Exchange is endorsed by the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, and Women in Film. 

Wednesday's announcement by Academy of Sciences President Ralph J. Cicerone will be followed by a symposium that will bring together hundreds of entertainment industry professionals with top scientists at a symposium to discuss new 3D technology and other breakthroughs for science and entertainment. Hosted by Family Guy's Seth McFarlane, it will include directors Jerry Zucker, Lawrence Kasdan, Chris Weitz, Kimberly Pierce, Jocelyn Moorhouse and production designer Rick Carter with Steve Chu (Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1997 Nobel Prize winner in Physics), Bonnie Bassler (Director of graduate studies, department of molecular biology, Princeton University), Rodney Brooks (Panasonic Professor of Robotics, MIT; and chief technical officer, iRobot Corp), Neil Degrasse Tyson (Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History, New York City), V.S. Ramachandran (Director, Center for Brain and Cognition, UCSD), and J. Craig Venter (President, J. Craig Venter Institute). Sponsors include Patrick Soon-Shiong, chairman and CEO of Abraxis Bioscience Inc, and CuresNow, the non-profit organization promoting the rapid, responsible and ethical advancement of science to bring about treatments and cures for diseases that affect millions of families and founded by film producers Lucy Fisher, Doug Wick, Janet Zucker and Jerry Zucker; as well as the Entertainment Industry Foundation, which represents the collective philanthropy of the television and film businesses.

Summit Entertainment has arranged with the major theater circuits for Thursday midnight or Friday morning shows. As of noon ET today, Twilight has already sold out 389 performances at MovieTickets.com, including more than 140 this past weekend alone. Four days prior to its release, Twilight is already No. 20 on MovieTickets' Top-20 Pre-Sale List of All-Time. The pic has accounted for 85% of tickets sold on the site today. Meanwhile, Warner Bros is using Twilight to debut its new Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince trailer which aired first on the net this weekend. You may recall that Potter vacated the November 21st release date which Twilight grabbed.

'TWILIGHT' ZONE: Fans Camp Out Day Before Premiere; Is $60M Wkd Possible?

Yes, SAG and the AMPTP are scheduled to meet on Thursday thanks to federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez's shuttle diplomacy. No one knows if it's with the AMPTP full committee, but I know that SAG is making arrangements for its entire negotiating committee to be available. Expectations are less than zero that the AMPTP will even consider budging from its New Media positions under the guise that the guild is lucky a last best offer was made before the economic climate worsened. Meanwhile, SAG intends to keep pushing for its $60 million in overdue force majeure payments from the majors, since it's one of the few bargaining chips which the guild has to play with the AMPTP short of a strike authorization. The Hollywood CEOs want those debts forgiven and the whole force majeure payment issue removed from future SAG contracts. Meanwhile, there's still plenty of time for SAG to sink both the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards broadcasts.

The spin should be both nauseating and fascinating. I'll have a full report tomorrow.

There's good new and bad news at the same time. It's only the start of the holiday movie season yet year-to-date statistics show that 2008's box office revenues have passed 2007's. According to Media By Numbers, it's $8.148 billion vs $8.074 billion. But, and this is important, attendance is down 3.56%.

Billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban -- whose holdings include cable, HD, movie and entertainment companies -- is today facing insider trading charges from the SEC over an internet search company's shares he bought and then sold based on confidential info to allegedly escape a $750K loss. The sports and showbiz loudmouth who's championed movies coming out the same day in theaters as on DVD can't be happy about this. My bet is that he links this prosecution to his funding of Sharesleuth.com, a web site to uncover fraud in publicly traded companies, and more recently Bailoutsleuth.com, an online portal for oversight over the $700B government bailout of financial institutions. Then again, Cuban, like Martha Stewart, will find that the SEC likes to go after cases against high-profile individuals as a part of its broader enforcement efforts. Along with his buddy from Broadcast.com days Todd Wagner, Cuban owns Landmark Theatres, a chain of 57 art house cinemas in the U.S.; 2929 Entertainment and Magnolia Pictures, two movie production companies; and HDNet, the first nationwide high-definition cable network. He also was on the 5th season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars.

Latest 'Twilight' Zone Update...

There they are -- squatting in Westwood outside Mann's Village theater starting Sunday to have curbside views of the red carpet arrivals for the Twilight movie premiere on Monday. First about 25 people showed and then 50, mostly female, and growing in size. (It's now around 300) One of their signs says, "Not Moving Til Twilight".  I'm assured that Summit Entertainment isn't paying them to pull a publicity stunt. But hordes of teen fans of Stephenie Meyer's four vampire books also camped out in downtown Toronto in the rain and cold on Friday to see the Twilight actors at MuchMusic's studios on Saturday (photo below). The weekend before, 3,000 showed up at a similar event in San Francisco and created chaos when organizers had wristbands for only 1,000. And outside Chicago last week, chaos ensued when Twilight star Robert Pattinson appeared for a meet and greet at a mall where 500 fans waited outside -- some overnight -- to ask him for a "bite". The fans first made their ardor known this past summer at Comic-Con when thousands camped out the night before to see the cast and crew present new footage.

Right now, Hollywood doesn't quite know what to make of this frenzy in terms of estimating box office grosses for this low-cost blockbuster's November 21st opening. My box office gurus are all over the place right now, with estimates ranging from $35M and maybe $40M all the way up to $60M. ("Well that would be something, especially for a one, to one and a half, quadrant movie. I guess after this weekend anything is possible but that seems very aggressive," one major studio bigwig told me.) I've already reported that even two weeks before its opening, Twilight already sold out nearly 100 show times, and now that number is 200 a week before the November 21st release date across the nation. On Monday, Summit has arranged with the major theater circuits for Thursday midnight or Friday morning shows. On Monday, Summit has arranged with the major theater circuits for Thursday midnight or Friday morning shows in some of the 3,500-plus theaters playing Twilight. With only a $37 million negative cost, this low-budget blockbuster just doesn't happen often in the film biz. So if the movie lives up to the advance hype, Summit will be sitting on a big new franchise. As I've reported, the start-up studio is already prepping the sequel.

Meanwhile, the studio's flacks keep having to update its brag sheet daily. The official film website has received over 11MM views since October. The trailers have garnered over 12MM views on MySpace, which is a record. The debut of the final trailer in the Twilight widget and on MySpace Trailer Park generated over 3.5 million views in the first 48 hours. It's the 3rd most searched movie on IMDb Pro’s MOVIEMeter (others above it are already in theaters). Robert Pattinson is #2 on their STARMeter, ranking higher than Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, while Kristen Stewart is #4 on the list, higher than Angelina Jolie. There was so much response to the Twilight casting photos when they were initially posted that MTV.com’s server crashed. They did similar numbers to the Harry Potter and Spider-Man franchises.

In media, the Entertainment Weekly "Twilight Saga" cover was the best-seller of the year for the mag, surpassing the Dark Knight and Harry Potter covers. Because of this, EW is putting Twilight on another cover, which is rare for the mag to feature the same film like that twice. Vanity Fair features an entire cast spread in their December issue. When TV's Extra aired a segment from Ashley Greene's and Rachelle Lefevre’s H Magazine photo shoot, it was the second-highest rated show in primetime. Posted on the website, the segment generated 3x the traffic Extra got for the Jonas Brothers.

Overseas, ticket sales for the Rome International Film Festival sold out in a few hours, prompting festival organizers to add another screening. In Spain, over 1,000 screaming fans tried to get into a presentation at the Sitges Film Festival, more than 3x the maximum occupancy.
 
As for music, the Twilight soundtrack is #1 ( on Top 200, Soundtrack and Alternative charts) after one week of release. It's the first soundtrack to accomplish this feat in 6 years (since 8 Mile was released). Even when the soundtrack wasn't even completed, it was already in the Top 5 Best-Selling Albums on Amazon based on pre-sales alone. Paramore’s single “Decode†is a huge hit.

Disney held sneaks of Bolt on Saturday in around 880 theaters at about 73% capacity to generate word of mouth, and Fox used them to run a new 3D trailer for Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (July 1st). Both had a great reaction... Trailer will also run on the regular engagements of Bolt starting on Friday.

The studio debuted this first trailer for Angels & Demons it in front of Quantum Of Solace over the weekend. Interesting how the production ensured, since this is Dan Brown's prequel to The Da Vinci Code, Tom Hanks looks younger. Opens May 31st.

SUNDAY AM UPDATE: Huge pre-sales added up to a franchise record shattering opening in North American for the new Bond film. That's phenomenal, considering 007's 46-year history. It made $27M on Friday and another $26.1M Saturday from 3,451 theaters. So MGM/Sony were thrilled that their costly Quantum Of Solace's weekend grosses totaled $70.4M in North America (including Sunday's estimate of $17.3M). That far exceeds the $60M which Hollywood expected. It's also blows away by 73% the $40.8M North American weekend debut of Daniel Craig's James Bond in MGM/Sony's Casino Royale (November 2006), and easily beats the $47.1M bow of Die Another Day (November 2002) that used to be the best ever. Quantum's success must be due to either pent-up demand for Hollywood's holiday season product or Daniel Craig's new-found popularity or both. Because the new Bond-as-Bourne's reviews were dismal (only 35% positive from top critics on Rotten Tomatoes as opposed to 95% for its predecessor). But it appears this 22nd Bond's delayed U.S. debut -- three weeks after its October 31st bow in the UK and two weeks after most of the world -- proved to be a savvy distribution and marketing move for the new pic. Even though U.S. Bond fans have been bitching and moaning all over the Internet that they didn't want to wait so long to see the film, which so far has made a staggering $251M internationally from 73 territories, or $322M worldwide. The pic is over halfway towards Casino Royale's global $599.2M after coming off a $126.5M weekend overseas.
And it has yet to open in Japan, Australia and Spain.

Last weekend's big No. 1 film Madascagar: Escape 2 Africa, produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount, was #2 with $8.1M Friday and $16.9M Saturday from 4,065 venues. That's an impressive $36.1M weekend, down only 43% from a week ago because of crowded Saturday kiddie matinees, for a fresh new cume of $118M. The family fare soared over the $100M mark in just 10 days time. Universal's surprisingly robust R-rated comedy Role Models held for No. 3 with only a 39% drop for an $11.7M weekend and a new $38.1M cume. At No. 4, Disney's tween/teen hit among females High School Musical 3: Senior Year added another $5.8M weekend for a solid new cume of $84.3M. And Changeling, Universal's Oscar-touted drama directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie, came in No. 5. It earned an additional $4.2M for a fresh $27.6M cume.

No. 6 was The Weinstein Co's Zack And Miri Make A Porno from Kevin Smith with a $3.2M weekend and new $26.5M cume. The Weinstein Co's other pic, distributed by MGM, was #7, the late Bernie Mac's Soul Men, which had a $2.4M weekend and now a $9.4M cume. At No. 8, Fox Searchlight's The Secret Life of Bees, based on the best-selling novel, earned another $2.4M this weekend for a fresh $33.6M cume. In No. 9, Lionsgate's horrific R-rated Saw V made $1.7M this weekend for a new cume of $55.4. And, ounding out the Top 10, Freestyle Releasing's The Haunting Of Mollie Hartley squeezed out $1.6M this weekend for a $12.6M cume.

The only other new film of note is Fox Searchlight's Oscar-heralded and Danny Boyle-directed Slumdog Millionaire, which platformed in 10 theaters for a $350K weekend and a $418.1K new cume. It managed a huge per screen average of $35,043.

Overall, the weekend box office totaled a hefty $155M, up 49% from last year's $103.7M. 

Back to 007... Here's why Quantum Of Solace opened late. It started when The Dark Knight made so much money that Warner Bros. decided to give other studios early Xmas cheer by moving Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to 2009, thus freeing up its original release date of November 21th (which about-to-be-blockbuster Twilight grabbed). That allowed Quantum of Solace to move from November 7th to November 14th. However, that also meant the new Bond pic's U.S. bow would really lag behind its UK/France/Sweden record-breaking opening October 31st to November 2nd. That date was considered optimum for Europe because of a conveniently placed bank holiday. So why didn't the studios pull the trigger on 007 at the same time in North America? Because when Halloween falls on a Friday, Saturday or even Sunday, it's considered the worst weekend to open a movie here. Plus, Sony has had tremendous success with its pre-Thanksgiving plays. (You think these people aren't superstitious?) So Quantum Of Solace wound up with this weekend all to itself in North America.

The new Bond film opened #1 in every territory where it debuted and exceeded  the opening of Casino Royale in almost every market. A true sequel since its storyline picks up just one hour later, 007 had been tracking strongest among males, with hard-body Craig bringing interest from older women. In North America, the opening weekend exit polling showed the audience was 54% male and 46% female, with  58% over age 25 and 42% under 25. But filmgoers may not have realized this is 007 without the beloved Bond clichés and stereotypes. In fact, pic 22 is more like Bond-as-Bourne since it dropped Moneypenny, dropped Q, dropped the wit, dropped the gadgets and dropped the line “The name is Bond, James Bond.â€

Meanwhile, rival studios tell me this may be the costliest film ever made minute-by-minute: $261 million for a 105-minute movie, which comes out to almost $2.5 million per minute. (Highest is the $300-million price-tag for 165-minute Pirates of The Caribbean 3.) But Sony sources say that number is off base by more than $60 million. Plus they claim tax credits from filming. Which is why one veteran film financing source warned me, "The film cost a fortune, and they spent a fortune to release it, so it better do well. Everything is relative."

Paramount launched it with MGM/Sony's Quantum Of Solace Friday. I've been skeptical, but this Star Trek XI trailer looks intriguing. And, most importantly, mainstream. Maybe J.J. Abrams has pulled a Chris Nolan and reimagined a stale franchise. But Star Trek has failed to ever do much internationally. Which is why JJ and studio vice chairman Rob Moore are just finishing a road show sharing 25 minutes of footage territory by territory this past week in the UK, Germany, Spain, France, and Italy, I've learned, and receiving "extraordinary" response. That has Paramount feeling optimistic about Star Trek XI's overseas prospects -- "building what has traditionally been a primarily U.S. franchise into a global one" -- which are key to the franchise's future. Hollywood knows there's just no economy of scale anymore for a big budget domestic-only hit. This coming Wednesday, the studio will unveil these 25 minutes at a screening for selected opinion-makers. A revitalized Star Trek would give Brad Grey and Rob Moore a 3rd big new franchise in addition to Transformers and G.I. Joe. No other studio can boast that right now. Will the Paramount pinheads have the last laugh?

The Writers Guild, West, is considering bringing a lawsuit to protect its First Amendment rights. And I think every Hollywood guild member should boycott this hell-hole of a shopping mall that houses the Oscars. That's because a group of WGAW staffers were subjected to “citizen’s arrest†Thursday morning at the Hollywood & Highland complex. At about 9:00 A.M. Thursday, Hollywood & Highland Center security guards abruptly surrounded, detained, and handcuffed WGAW guild organizers Laura Watson (see photo left) and Terence Long, and Assistant Executive Director Jeff Hermanson (see photo below). So what were the activists doing to get themselves hauled off? Simply passing out leaflets during American Idol's week of Hollywood auditions there and informing the public that “FremantleMedia refuses to treat its writers fairlyâ€.

The WGAW insists they did not interfere with or obstruct the shopping mall’s operations or the activities of FremantleMedia. But the guild members were turned over to the LAPD, and later released after posting bond. Writers Guild General Counsel Tony Segall said the guild was considering legal action against the operators of the Hollywood & Highland Center for false arrest. The California Supreme Court has held that the state constitution guarantees the right of expression of ideas in shopping malls on the grounds that they're the contemporary equivalent of the town square. The WGAW notes that other labor unions and community groups have held public actions such as leafleting and picketing inside the Hollywood & Highland shopping complex without incident. (Photo below of leafleting at the mall)

Thursday's protest was part of the WGA's ongoing campaign of rallies, briefings, and a nationwide tour to bring attention to what the guild claims are "the substandard industry practices" of American Idol producer FremantleMedia. The American Idol Truth Tour shadowed AI auditions this past summer in several major U.S. cities -- including San Francisco, New York, Phoenix, and San Juan, Puerto Rico -- to demand that FremantleMedia provide its writers and other workers with industry standard pay and benefits. But yesterday was the first time American Idol Truth Tour participants had been arrested. “We will continue to exercise our First Amendment rights despite the heavy-handed treatment we received,†said the WGAW's Hermanson. “The public has a right to know that the top-rated show on television does not provide their writers with basic necessities like health care.â€

I've just confirmed that three talent managers at Anonymous Content are being released as of January: Eric Black, Beverly Strong and Adam Krentzman. And a 4th talent manager there, Scott Wexler, left not long ago. However, the rumors that the company is dissolving its talent division or merging with 360 Management are untrue, according to my sources. While the layoffs aren't surprising in these awful economic times, they follow Anonymous Content just bringing in Adam Shulman from kaput The Firm with clients in tow like Bill Condon, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Mark Bomback, Shari Berman and Robert Pulcini, and Jessica Yu.

UPDATE: Walden Media has just issued the press release. See below. 

Geez, what took so long? After all, CEO Cary Granat had been marginalized there for almost the entire year by David Weil, the CEO of Anschutz Film Group which is Walden Media's parent company. "They had gotten along and then things started to go awry. The two men went in opposite directions," a source tells me. Granat, whose name has been synonymous with Walden Media since 2001, should be out the door no later than the end of the year. He'd been hanging on by a thread since last January when Walden Media let go many staffers (like head of production Alex Schwartz and Executive VP Jackie Levine as well as the physical production department, public relations staff, music staff, legal staff, etc.). After that, the Walden Media co-founder retained his CEO title and oversaw physical production, marketing, and existing franchises. But Weil was firmly holding the reins. Granat was in charge of the disappointing Narnia 2, but now still can't get a greenlight for Narnia 3. Which may well explain why "he feels like he did when he left Dimension: I'm done," an insider explains to me. Sticking around for now is Granat's longtime pal Michael Bostick, the film producer announced as the new co-CEO of Walden Media last March, whom Granat had actively recruited and reports to Weil. Bostick's hiring followed an extensive executive search during which the job was offered to both Nina Jacobson and Colin Calender. But they weren't willing to put up with the weirdness at Walden Media as it pertained to Granat. (Though Calender is footloose.) The real question now: what is the future of Walden Media? Is yet another buyer going down the tubes in this lousy economy? Hard to imagine considering Anschutz still has dough. Until recently, all of Walden Media's movies had been shared with Disney, Fox or Summit. But in October, Fox Walden became part of Fox, and about a dozen Fox Walden staffers would be laid off as part of a restructuring. And Granat's name was nowhere on that press release -- only Weil's. 

1 PM: Here's the official Walden Media announceent about Granat's exit:

The 24 star had been Scott Lambert's client. Now that Lambert has left the William Morris Agency, I'm told CAA made a big push for him. After all, Kiefer's half-brother Roeg Sutherland is a film financing agent there. And his dad Donald Sutherland is repped there. A lot of talent keeps walking out the door at WMA.

WMA Losing Another Key Talent Agent... 

What a miserable two weeks dealing with illness and personal stuff, so I'm thrilled to start working again. Many thanks for your hundreds of best wishes. So nice to know DHD was missed. I'll be making my way through all those great tips you sent in: I'm reading each one and following up. (Your anonymity always paramount...) Keep them coming. And, when I get up to speed, DHD will have lots of exclusives to unveil...

 

Any day now, 2008's biggest blockbuster The Dark Knight will be topping $1 billion worldwide. Warner Bros tells me that it's already reached $997.5 ($528.5 million domestically and $469 million internationally) since its North American release on July 18th. It's already the 2nd highest domestic grossing pic of all time behind only the $600.8 million domestic haul of 1997/1998's Titanic. And it's the 4th highest worldwide grossing pic behind #1 Paramount/Fox's Titanic ($1.8B), #2 New Line's The Lord of the Rings 3: The Return of the King ($1.1B), and #3 Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest ($1.0B). (None of these rankings are adjusted for inflation or ticket prices.)

MGM/Sony's Quantum Of Solace was the #1 film in every international territory where it opened this week. Its box office grosses also have been bigger in every territory than Casino Royale, which was Daniel Craig's debut as 007, with 13 countries doubling the 21st Bond pic's earnings. The sequel (No. 22) has now opened in 60 countries on 9,870 screens for a $106.5M weekend and new 10-day cume of $160.3M with the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, and Japan still to go. There should be $200M in the bank by the time Quantum Of Solace debuts in North America Friday. It enjoyed a record-setting debut in the UK, France and Sweden last weekend. Then on Wednesday it had the 2nd biggest opening day ever for a non-Chinese picture in China (behind Spider-Man 3) and scored the 9th biggest opening day ever in The Phillippines, the 4th biggest opening day ever in Indonesia, and 2008's biggest opening day in Belgium. On Thursday, it had India's biggest opening day of 2008 and the second biggest opening day ever for a non-Indian film (behind Spider-Man 3). Over this weekend, Quantum Of Solace scored within the Top 20 openings of all time in 35 territories.

SUNDAY AM: The holiday movie season officially opened big this weekend with North American box office grosses up 29% over last year's. Moviegoers once again had a huge appetite for Hollywood animation, even when it's a sequel that broke absolutely no new ground with respect to the genre. So DreamWorks Animation's Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa distributed by Paramount had an even stronger opening than anticipated by movie analysts. It made $17.6 million Friday and $27.6 million Saturday from a very wide release of 4,056 theaters for a $63.5M first weekend including Sunday's estimated take. Yowza! That far exceeds the performance of the 2005 original, which opened to $47.2M for the three-day Memorial Weekend. And it smashes Kung Fu Panda's June 6th-8th three-day weekend take from 4,114 venues of $60.2M that set Dreamworks Animation's all-time non-sequel opening. It also turned out to be the biggest animated opening of the year above the $63.1M of Pixar/Disney's Wall-E. Paramount boasted that this is the fifth $40 million opening it has released in one year -- Cloverfield, Iron Man, Indy 4, Kung Fu Panda, and now this film -- and claimed it was a first for any studio's distribution division. Madagascar 2's success just goes to show that the strategy of making 90-minute toons is shrewd: not only can theaters get in a lot of screenings, but both parents and offspring can sit through anything that short without too much squirming. Once again, my pet theory is proven: that almost any animated film featuring characters with fur does better at the box office. 

Universal released one of those rare R-rated raunchy comedies not made by Judd Apatow and it far exceeded movie analysts' expectations. The studio had projected no more than an $11 million opening for No. 2 Role Models whose tracking showed middling awareness but decent interest with the under-25 set (both males and females followed by older males). Even most rival studios thought the low-cost pic would make low teens. So it's a surprise that Role Models debuted with $6.6 million Friday and $7.5 million Saturday (+14%) for a $19.2M weekend. There's clearly pent-up demand for adult laffers and pairing Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd with director David Wain didn't hurt. (I'm told that it was Rudd who suggested the studio hire Wain.) "We've had success placing R-rated movies against family oriented fare -- American Gangster against Bee Movie, Wanted against Wall-E," a Universal insider told me.

Disney's High School Musical 3: Senior Year ended the weekend No. 3 by adding another $9.2 million for a fresh cume of $75.7M. I wouldn't be surprised if Disney decides to insure Zac Efron's six-pack abs for millions. Universal's Oscar-touted Changeling directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie came in No. 4 with a $7.2M weekend and new cume of $20.5M. The Weinstein Co's holdover Zach and Miri Makes A Porno was No. 5 adding another $6.5 million weekend for a fresh cume of $20.9M.

As expected, The Weinstein Co/MGM's Soul Men tanked for only 6th despite starring the late Bernie Mac which should have enabled it to overperform with African-American audiences. But it eked out $1.7 million Friday and $2.4 million Saturday from 2,044 theaters for just an estimated $5.6M weekend.

MGM/Sony's Quantum Of Solace was the #1 film in every international territory where it opened this week. Its box office grosses also have been bigger in every territory than Casino Royale, which was Daniel Craig's debut as 007, with 13 countries doubling the 21st Bond pic's earnings. The sequel (No. 22) has now opened in 60 countries on 9,870 screens for a $106.5M weekend and new 10-day cume of $160.3M with the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, and Japan still to go. There should be $200M in the bank by the time Quantum Of Solace debuts in North America Friday. It enjoyed a record-setting debut in the UK, France and Sweden last weekend. Then on Wednesday it had the 2nd biggest opening day ever for a non-Chinese picture in China (behind Spider-Man 3) and scored the 9th biggest opening day ever in The Phillippines, the 4th biggest opening day ever in Indonesia, and 2008's biggest opening day in Belgium. On Thursday, it had India's biggest opening day of 2008 and the second biggest opening day ever for a non-Indian film (behind Spider-Man 3). Over this weekend, Quantum Of Solace scored within the Top 20 openings of all time in 35 territories.

Miramax's Oscar-touted Holocaust drama The Boy In The Striped Pajamas based on John Boyne's book, debuted in 17 theaters of 8 markets with $255K  for the weekend. Lionsgate's Repo! The Genetic Opera, Darren Lynn Bousman's Paris Hilton-Paul Sorvino starrer, opened in 8 theaters for a $51.5K weekend.

Overall, it looks like a big weekend at the box office with total grosses shaping up to approach $145M, +28.8% from last year's $112.5M.

The rest of the Top 10 were holdovers:.

1. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) $63.5M wkd from 4,056 theaters.

2. Role Models (Universal) $19.2M wkd from 2,792 theaters.

3. High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Disney) $9.2M wkd from 3,464 theaters. $75.7M cume.

4. Changeling (Universal) $7.2M wkd from 1,855 theaters. $20.5M cume.

5. Zack And Miri Make A Porno (The Weinstein Co) $6.5M wkd from 2,735 theaters. $20.9M cume.

6. Soul Men (The Weinstein Co/MGM) $5.6 wkd from 2,044 theaters.

7. Saw V (Twisted Picture/Lionsgate) $4.2M wkd from 2,829 theaters. $52.3M cume.

8. The Haunting Of Molly Hartley (Freestyle Releasing) $3.5M wkd from 2,576 theaters. $10.2M cume.

9. The Secret Life Of Bees (Fox Searchlight) $3.1M wkd from 1,481 theaters. $29.9M cume.

10. Eagle Eye (DreamWorks/Paramount) $2.5M wkd from 1,407 theaters. $96.4M cume.

MovieTicket.com sales as of 3:30 PM ET today

1. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (DreamWorks Animation/Paramount) 45%
2. Quantum of Solace (MGM/Sony) 17%
3. Twilight (Summit Entertainment) 11%
4. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa: The IMAX Experience 6%
5. High School Musical 3: Senior Year (Disney) 5%
6. Role Models (Universal) 4%
7. Soul Men (The Weinstein Co/MGM) 1%
8. Changeling (Universal) 1%
9. Zack and Miri Make A Porno (The Weinstein Co) 1%
10. Saw V (Lionsgate) 1%
Other 8%