AP Entertainment

"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" has set a box-office record for midnight screenings. Summit Entertainment estimated Friday that it earned $26.3 million after opening early in the morning. That would topple the previous midnight record, held by "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." It earned $22.2 million this year. "The Dark Knight" from 2008 is third with $18.5 million. "New Moon" is the second installment of the popular "Twilight" series. It opened at midnight in 3,514 theaters with a per-theater average of $7,476. Paul Dergarabedian (der-gayr-uh-BEE'-dee-uhn) is a box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. He says the midnight start "portends an opening weekend that could be ... Read Full Story

Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by the Nielsen Co. for the week of Nov. 9-15. Day and start time (EST) are in parentheses: 1. NFL Football: Pittsburgh vs. Denver (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), ESPN, 11.35 million homes, 16 million viewers. 2. "ICarly" (Saturday, 8 p.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.44 million homes, 5.03 million viewers. 3. "SpongeBob Truth or Square" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.4 million homes, 4.65 million viewers. 4. "Suite Life on Deck" (Friday, 8:30 p.m.), Disney, 3.31 million homes, 4.77 million viewers. 5. "Penguins of Madagascar" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.219 million homes, 4.49 million viewers. 6. Movie: "ICarly ... Read Full Story

A prominent mainland Chinese director banned by Beijing from making movies brought his new gay romance film to Hong Kong on Friday for what is likely the last of a handful of screenings on his home soil. In 2006, China banned Lou Ye from shooting movies for five years after he screened "Summer Palace" at the Cannes Film Festival without government approval. In the film Lou tackled the Chinese military's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy student protesters at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people are believed to have been killed. But he defied the ban, secretly shooting the love story ... Read Full Story

Fans who will be in the audience at "The Oprah Winfrey Show" say they're excited to hear the media mogul talk about her plans for the future. Winfrey's production company says the talk-show host will announce when she'll end her long-running show during a live broadcast Friday. The show is expected to wrap up in 2011 after 25 seasons. Audience member Rachel Lavipour (LAH'-vuh-pohr) of Las Vegas says she thinks Winfrey's announcement is "a huge moment in our pop culture history." And fan Sandra Donaldson of Indianapolis says it's an honor to attend the taping. Donaldson says she's looking forward to Winfrey's next projects. ... Read Full Story

When the apocalypse comes, China will save the world. Or at least that's how Chinese audiences are interpreting "2012," Hollywood's latest blockbuster disaster movie. "It's about time the world sees us as a dominant ally," said Liu Xinliang, 27, a Beijing-based computer programmer who watched the movie twice. The movie, currently No. 1 in the U.S., is also No. 1 in China, grossing $17.2 million here since it opened Nov. 13. Like others in a Beijing theater this week, Liu grinned with pride as he watched Chinese troops in the movie escort wealthy and important citizens onto an ark designed to withstand cataclysmic doom. ... Read Full Story