Opening in narrower release was the Weinstein Co. thriller DOA: Dead or Alive, an adaptation of the martial-arts video game that pulled in just $232,000. Playing in 505 theaters, DOA averaged a paltry $460 a cinema, compared with $14,499 in 3,959 theaters for Fantastic Four and $2,732 in 2,612 locations for Nancy Drew.
Despite the big opening for Fantastic Four, Hollywood revenues slipped for the third straight weekend.
After a surge early this year, attendance has slipped to just a fraction ahead of 2006, diminishing prospects of a record summer that many analysts had predicted.
Rosie to replace Bob?
Bob Barker collected his 19th Emmy for outstanding game-show host on Friday night, synching up precisely with his final appearance as Price is Right host, Variety reports. "This proves that the judges have sympathy for an old man who doesn't have a job," Barker quipped in accepting the award. Backstage, the TV icon confirmed that Rosie O'Donnell, despite the View alum's coldly received trade-mag campaign to get the gig, may still be in the running to come on down as the new host. "I do believe they are going to have a meeting with her," he told reporters.
'Junior' Gotti relocating to the South
John "Junior" Gotti is selling his estate and preparing for an eventual move to the South, far from the region where his father was a notorious mob boss.
Gotti, 43, plans to place the 1.96-acre property in Oyster Bay Cove - on Long Island about 30 miles east of the city - on the market in two weeks, The New York Post reported in yesterday's editions.
"We're finishing fixing it up," Gotti told the newspaper. "I can't afford the upkeep."
