Tip your fedora to Viacom’s Paramount Pictures.

Summer’s not yet in full swing, but the studio already has two big hits, “Iron Man,” which has banked nearly $500 million worldwide and now “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” which brought in more than $300 million this weekend, Reuters reports.

The tally marked the second-highest U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend opening in history, despite some mixed reviews for the film starring Harrison Ford as the eponymous archeologist.

Paramount’s success could extend over the coming weeks with the release of “Kung Fu Panda.” But the Wall Street Journal points out that because major studios are laying off risk in many movie projects, they are also limiting the amount of money the can take in. Such is the case with both “Iron Man” and “Kung Fu Panda.”

The Wall Street Journal quotes Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield on the subject. “Would I prefer that Paramount own all these films the way they did with Transformers, sure,” he tells the paper. “But there is definitely revenue coming in for all three films and they’re all very profitable for the studio. And if these films don’t do well, they are low risk for the studio.”

Keep an eye on:

• Nearly 25 million homes have at least one TV set that will stop working when the U.S. switches to digital over-the-air television in nine months. (New York Times)
• Facebook could turn its Facebook Platform into an open source project as soon as the week, multiple sources tell TechCrunch.
• How did the CBS-CNET deal come about? PaidContent takes a look, after digging through a filing with the SEC. Here’s what it says: “CBS first offered $10.50 a share on April 2nd, which at that time was about 40 percent premium on the share price. CNET rejected it, then the price went up in increments: from $10.75 per share to $11.25 per share, to the final price of $11.50 per share.”

(Photo: Reuters)