Audiences

NEW YORK -- Recently in Fargo, N.D., moviegoers had a choice among "Aliens vs. Predator," "The Great Debaters" -- and "Macbeth," live from New York's Metropolitan Opera. Murder, mayhem, romance -- the plot elements of Verdi's opera were packing 'em in at about 600 theaters across North America, Europe, Japan and Australia. It's all part of a marketing strategy by the Met's general manager, Peter Gelb, to attract a new, younger audience.

"Speed Racer" was lapped in its opening weekend at the box office as "Iron Man" continued to fire its jets with $50.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. The anime-inspired race movie edged into the No. 2 spot with $20.2 million, slightly ahead of the 20th Century Fox comedy "What Happens in Vegas," which premiered at $20 million. "Our tracking was stalled toward the end," Dan Fellman, president of Warner Bros.

As music business headlines go, the one that arrived this week was a golden oldie, a half-forgotten tune from happier days: A new album soared to the top of the charts, selling more than 1 million copies in a single week. It was the first time in 39 months that any album performed that feat, and across the industry the numbers were met with shock and delight.

Would you believe . . . $39.2 million? The old espionage spoof trick worked to push Steve Carell's "Get Smart," the big screen update of the 1960s spy sitcom, to the top of the box office over the weekend. Although reviews were mixed, the Warner Bros. movie surpassed high expectations, according to studio estimates Sunday. Audiences were less taken with "The Love Guru," the first live-action movie starring Mike Myers in four years.

HONG KONG -- Hollywood's fighting cartoon panda is a hit in the furry animal's home country. The American animated movie "Kung Fu Panda" has grossed nearly $16 million at the Chinese box office as of Wednesday, according to its distributors. Fifteen million dollars is the threshold for a big hit in China. Distributors have issued nearly 450 copies of "Kung Fu Panda" to theaters and another eight on IMAX. The movie opened in China on June 20 to rave reviews.

NBC is using the Olympics as a "billion-dollar research lab" to learn how people are using various media platforms to experience the Beijing Games that begin Aug. 8. Besides giving advertisers a clearer picture of how much attention consumers are paying to the events, NBC hopes its research provides a comprehensive picture of how people supplement TV viewership with tools such as video streaming, video on demand and mobile phones, said Alan Wurtzel, the company's research chief.

The AUDIENCE for live classical music, theater and dance is, like, dying -- OMG! They're sitting in the dark in the concert hall or theater, aging so fast that their gray hair will be white by intermission. And someday soon, the last of the bunch -- a doddering sourpuss who writes letters to his local newspaper with a fountain pen -- will keel over in his velvet seat, done in by the effort of yelling "Brava!" at a plus-sized soprano.

Robert Carsen, director of the Paris production of Leonard Bernstein's "Candide" that was dropped by Milan's La Scala opera house last week, said the production was back on the slate after he agreed to adjust it for the Milanese audience. In a long telephone conversation with La Scala General Manager Stephane Lissner, "I urged him to reconsider, and that's what he's done," Carsen said. They agreed to talk about specifics later.

In a week with little original programming, viewers flocked to first-run episodes of the NBC game shows "Deal or No Deal" and "1 vs. 100," along with reruns of CBS crime dramas, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research. A two-hour Christmas edition of "Deal or No Deal" was the most-watched prime-time program from Dec. 25 through Sunday, drawing 16.43 million viewers. It was also the most-watched show among viewers ages 18 to 49, the group coveted by advertisers. The episode of "1 vs.

Weekend box-office results in the U.S. and Canada, Jan. 5-7 Industry total *--* Movie 3-day gross Total(MILL) Venues AVGVenue Weeks 1Night at the $23.7 $163.8 3,730 $6,366 3 Museum (20th Century Fox) 2The Pursuit of 12.9 124.0 3,027 4,255 4 Happyness (Sony) 3Children of Men 10.2 11.8 1,209 8,435 3 (Universal) 4Freedom Writers 9.4 9.4 1,360 6,916 1 (Paramount) 5Dreamgirls 8.7 54.3 852 10,169 4 (Paramount) 6Happily N'Ever 6.6 6.6 2,381 2,775 1 After (Lions Gate) 7Charlotte's Web 6.6 67.