LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Will Smith’s return as Agent J to the popular “Men in Black” comedy franchise zapped invading aliens and toppled the steam rolling super hero film “The Avengers” from atop movie box office charts, grabbing $203.2 million in worldwide ticket sales.

“MIB 3,” starring Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in roles they last played a decade ago, opened with $70 million in the United States and Canada from Friday through the U.S. Memorial Day holiday on Monday, according to estimates compiled by Reuters.

The third installment in the franchise pulled in another $133.2 million from international markets, distributor Sony Pictures said, and was the top-ranked film in 104 countries.

“It helps when you have a big brand that everyone wants to see,” said Jeff Blake, Vice Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and the studio’s marketing chief. “And it’s even better when the film delivers.”

Sony research showed that 97 percent of moviegoers were already aware of “Men in Black,” which Blake attributed to renewed interest by viewers of online and other new media distribution.

Nearly 30 percent of the movie’s audience were families, Blake said, a number that bodes well for its continued play “when the fan boys are no longer there.”

The superhero strength of “Avengers” weakened after three weeks at No. 1 in North American (U.S. and Canadian) ticket sales. The global blockbuster finished in second place with ticket sales of $47.1 million. The worldwide haul since its record debut reached $1.6 billion, distributor Walt Disney Co said

LOS ANGELES, May 27 (Reuters) – Will Smith’s return as Agent J to the popular “Men in Black” comedy franchise zapped invading aliens and toppled the steam rolling super hero film “The Avengers” from atop movie box office charts, grabbing $203.2 million in worldwide ticket sales.

“MIB 3,” starring Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in roles they last played a decade ago, opened with $70 million in the United States and Canada from Friday through the U.S. Memorial Day holiday on Monday, according to estimates compiled by Reuters.

The third installment in the franchise pulled in another $133.2 million from international markets, distributor Sony Pictures said, and was the top-ranked film in 104 countries.

“It helps when you have a big brand that everyone wants to see,” said Jeff Blake, Vice Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and the studio’s marketing chief. “And it’s even better when the film delivers.”

Sony research showed that 97 percent of moviegoers were already aware of “Men in Black,” which Blake attributed to renewed interest by viewers of online and other new media distribution.

Nearly 30 percent of the movie’s audience were families, Blake said, a number that bodes well for its continued play “when the fan boys are no longer there.”

The superhero strength of “Avengers” weakened after three weeks at No. 1 in North American (U.S. and Canadian) ticket sales. The global blockbuster finished in second place with ticket sales of $47.1 million. The worldwide haul since its record debut reached $1.6 billion, distributor Walt Disney Co said

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Eight stars of Fox TV’s musical comedy “Glee” bid farewell to McKinley High and headed down separate paths to pursue their dreams, leaving fans guessing how the show will follow their stories next season.

Fox has said “Glee” will split time between McKinley High in Ohio and New York City, where two characters were heading, and creator Ryan Murphy has said all the current stars will return in some fashion.

During Tuesday’s third-season finale, the seniors who graduated were Rachel (Lea Michele), Finn (Cory Monteith), Kurt (Chris Colfer), Quinn (Dianna Agron), Mike (Harry Shum Jr.), Puck (Mark Salling), Mercedes (Amber Riley) and Santana (Naya Rivera). Brittany’s (Heather Morris) poor grades kept her from getting a diploma.

Amid tearful goodbyes and covers of Bruce Springsteen and Beatles songs, show-choir star Rachel won acceptance to a New York performing arts school. But in a surprise, she traveled to the Big Apple solo after classmate Kurt didn’t make the cut and fiance Finn was rejected by an acting studio. Finn joined the Army and told Rachel to pursue her Broadway dreams on her own.

Santana planned to move to New York with her mother’s blessing using money she had saved for college. Dancer Mike Chang was headed to Chicago, and Mercedes was going to Los Angeles to try a singing career.

With the characters heading in different directions, it is unclear how “Glee” will weave them all into next season.

When it returns in the fall, the program will feature a “show within a show following some of the characters to New York,” Fox executive Kevin Reilly told reporters last week.

LOS ANGELES, May 20 (Reuters) – New action movie “Battleship” collided with Iron Man, The Hulk and the rest of “The Avengers” this weekend at movie theater box offices, and the super heroes came out on top.

“Avengers” from Walt Disney Co’s Marvel Studios added an estimated $55.1 million to its U.S. and Canadian ticket sales and held the No. 1 box office spot for the third straight weekend, according to studio forecasts on Sunday.

The strong performance left big-budget “Battleship,” which launched in theaters on Friday, drifting in second place with $25.3 million. Final figures will be released on Monday.

Since it opened overseas in late April, “Avengers” has dominated movie theater box offices worldwide. Global sales for the film that unites a squadron of Marvel super heroes in a battle against evil reached $1.18 billion through Sunday, making it the biggest Disney release ever, the studio said.

Steady interest in “The Avengers” likely took business from “Battleship,” an effects-filled $209-million production inspired by a Hasbro board game. Ahead of the weekend, box office forecasters projected at least $30 million for “Battleship” in its North American (U.S. and Canadian) debut.

“We’re disappointed obviously, there are a lot of factors going into this including the juggernaut ‘Avengers’ … it’s taking a big chunk out of the marketplace,” Nikki Rocco, president of domestic distribution at Universal Pictures, told Reuters.

“As a studio, it’s not a disaster but as a domestic opening, it’s softer than we could have hoped for … the (audience) attention span is unfortunately altered when you have a juggernaut like ‘Avengers,’” Rocco added.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Paul Lee’s performance since he took over as ABC Entertainment Group president in July 2010 gets these evaluations from analysts and other industry observers: “Good solid singles.” “Decent batting average.” “Doing reasonably well.”

Not bad, in other words, but no home runs.

After his first full season atop the network, ABC is essentially in the same position it was in before he got there. Ratings are flat, and the network is still ranked third among broadcast networks, with an average of 8.4 million total weekly viewers, according to Nielsen.

That’s why there is more riding for Lee on this year’s schedule – unveiled in New York on Tuesday – than for perhaps any other network head.

“We felt we had a lot to do when we came in and we’ve been very pleased,” Lee said on a conference call Tuesday.

“We had a good start but we’ve got to keep going and we think we have the shows to do it.”

With a new tagline that asks, “Why just watch when you can feel?” Lee announced 10 new shows – six dramas and four comedies.

By Yinka Adegoke and Lisa Richwine

(Reuters) – Broadcast television networks are going for laughs to attract viewers, pitching new comedies at next week’s annual “upfront” presentations to advertising buyers.

The big four U.S. broadcast networks – ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC – are all coming to the television industry’s annual rite with new comedies, a format that helps lower viewer age for older-skewing broadcast networks.

Though overtaken last year in total upfront dollars by insurgent cable networks like AMC Networks, each broadcaster still pulls in more dollars than any cable network.

Early indications from industry experts suggest that the big four broadcasters will see an increase in upfront revenue of between 2 percent to 4 percent for the 2012-13 TV season.

The big four plus the CW network should collect between $9.0 billion and $9.2 billion during the upfront season, according to Steve Lanzano, chief executive of TVB, a trade body for TV broadcasters.

Cable networks are expected to see upfront revenue increases of between 4 percent to 6 percent on average, according to analyst estimates.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s quarterly earnings, dragged down by a loss from science fiction bomb “John Carter,” beat Wall Street expectations with 21 percent profit growth driven by its theme parks and media networks.

Disney, which operates theme parks, a movie studio and TV properties, posted fiscal second quarter earnings of $1.1 billion and a 6 percent increase in revenue to $9.629 billion.

Adjusted earnings per share rose 18 percent to 58 cents. Analysts on average had expected 55 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The quarterly results do not include the massive results from Disney’s blockbuster superhero movie “The Avengers,” which set an industry record on May 6 by grossing $207.4 million in ticket sales over its first weekend. Total worldwide sales for the movie are $702 million.

The film studio recorded an $84 million loss in operating income on “John Carter,” which cost $250 million to produce and millions more to market.

As in recent quarters, Disney earnings were boosted by its media unit, which includes the sports channel ESPN and ABC. Operating earnings in that unit increased 13 percent to $1.7 billion in the latest quarter.

Earnings at the theme park unit rose 53 percent to $222 million.

By Jennifer Saba and Lisa Richwine

(Reuters) – Walt Disney Co’s ABC News and Univision are teaming up to launch an English-language news and lifestyle network targeting Hispanics, the fastest-growing group in the United States, the companies said on Monday.

The unnamed channel will begin broadcasting in 2013, and ABC and Univision will share news gathering and production costs, the companies said. Each company will own about 50 percent, a person with knowledge of the venture said. Other financial terms were not disclosed.

Cable news is a competitive and crowded landscape. CNN, MSNBC and Fox News are in battle for viewers’ attention and time. At the same time, broadcast network news is facing a shrinking and aging audience.

ABC and Univision – which started exploring a relationship more than a year ago – are banking on the growing number of Hispanics in the United States to flock to the new network. Hispanics currently represent 16 percent of the U.S. population, and the number is expected to grow to 30 percent by 2050.

Univision has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers in the United States, according to Nielsen ratings. Univision is owned by Saban Capital Group, Madison Dearborn Partners, Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Univision reported a $14.1 million loss in the quarter ending March 31, compared with $74.1 million a year earlier. The company has $8.9 billion in debt, much of it taken on when it went private following its 2007 acquisition.

By Ronald Grover and Lisa Richwine

(Reuters) – Walt Disney’s blockbuster “The Avengers” has five superheroes and record ticket sales. It also has a silent partner in Viacom’s Paramount Pictures, which stands to get a healthy payday even though the studio didn’t spend a cent to produce or market the film.

Paramount already collected $57.5 million in April, when the film was released internationally. And it stands to collect 8 percent of the millions that the film will earn in theaters, on DVD, and when it is watched on the Internet, according to two people with knowledge of the deal.

Under a 2005 distribution agreement between Paramount and Marvel, Paramount receives a distribution fee for the theatrical distribution of “The Avengers” as well as its distribution of its home video, Internet and TV rights. That agreement transferred to Disney, when Disney acquired Marvel for $4 billion in 2009.

Disney and Paramount agreed in 2010 to amend that agreement, giving Disney the rights to distribute Marvel-produced “The Avengers” and “Iron Man 3,” the second sequel to the 2008 film that Paramount distributes. That agreement stipulated that Disney would pay Paramount a $115 million advance against future fees that Paramount would have earned.

Half of that fee was paid when Disney released “The Avengers” in international markets.

Spokesmen for Disney and Paramount would not comment.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “The Avengers” proved that five superheroes are better than one by bursting into Hollywood’s record books with a massive $200.3 million in ticket sales over its opening weekend in U.S. and Canadian theaters, kicking off Hollywood’s summer movie season with a bang.

The domestic debut for the big-budget, effects-filled movie from Disney’s Marvel studios sped past last summer’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows – Part 2,” which opened with $169.2 million in its first weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. In March, “The Hunger Games” opened with $152.5 million, the fourth largest opening in box office history.

“The Avengers,” which reunites Marvel comic heroes Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk and Black Widow, has collected $641.8 million since it opened in international markets on April 25.

“We keep thinking we have a sense of what this movie can do, or will do, and every time we get a report it does even better,” said Dave Hollis, Disney’s executive vice-president of distribution. “This is very satisfying, to say the least.”

Disney’s aggressive marketing, which included promotions aimed at women that included sending stars to “The View” daytime talk show, resulted in women making up 40 percent of the audience for the action film, according to Disney’s survey. Half the audience was also over 25 years of age, the studio also said.

Winner of the past two weekends, Sony’s romantic comedy “Think Like a Man,” slipped to second place with $8 million at North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters, according to Hollywood.com.

“Hunger Games,” from Lions Gate Entertainment, took the No. 3 spot in its seventh week in theaters, with $5.7 million, and has collected $380.7 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters during its run.