Sequel

David Fincher's highly anticipated take on the popular Swedish film "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," which has finally hit theaters, is already leaving its mark on moviegoers. The movie, starring Rooney Mara, opened in 2,700 theaters nationwide at 7 p.m. Tuesday and grossed a respectable $1.6 million, based on an estimate from distributor Sony Pictures. Those who saw the picture, based on the first novel in Swedish author Stieg Larsson's bestselling trilogy, loved it —giving it an average grade of A, according to market research firm CinemaScore.

Moviegoers will have a handful of new films to choose from this weekend, but none are likely to reach the heights of Tom Cruise's latest "Mission: Impossible" sequel. The fourth installment in Paramount Pictures' action franchise, "Ghost Protocol," which expanded its run in theaters nationwide Tuesday night, is expected to beat all other box-office contenders this weekend. In the five-day period from Wednesday to Christmas Sunday, the movie will probably sell about $45 million worth of tickets, according to those who have seen prerelease audience surveys.

"War" is a thriving business at ABC. Make that "The Winds of War" and its sequel, "War and Remembrance." The former will be rebroadcast on ABC, beginning Sunday at 8 p.m. and continuing through Sept. 14. That's 18 hours of the second-most-watched miniseries in TV history during which ABC can air specially produced promotional spots for its new fall shows.

The sequel has been part of the movies' modus operandi from early days. It goes back at least to "The Squaw Man's Son" in 1917, a capitalizing on Jesse Lasky and Cecil B. De Mille's very successful first feature. At the start of the 1930s there was a remake of "The Squaw Man" itself, which bombed terribly at the box office--a fact of history that more makers of remakes ought to bear in mind. The series is another venerable trade item. Andy Hardy went through 16 outings between "A Family Affair" in 1936 and "Andy Hardy Comes Home" in 1958.

Daunted by the megalines for the latest "Star Trek" movie sequel now playing at a theater near you? Stay home. The entire crew of the Enterprise will pop up on the small screen this weekend as well. Hoping to capitalize on "Star Trek" mania, ABC will air the first sequel of the films, "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," Sunday at 8:30 p.m. (7)(3) (10)(42). A younger William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy star in this 1982 blockbuster based on the 1967 television episode, "The Space Seed."

If you're not into disembowelment for fun and profit, you may be saying, "'Hatchet II?' Really? Was there a first one?" There was, a 2006 slog through the swamps of amateur filmmaking that has somehow gathered a following. It is the tale of the ghost of the malformed Victor Crowley splattering folks all over a New Orleans fen. The most shocking thing about the sequel is that it's a dramatic improvement. Or nondramatic. The franchise has embraced its true nature: horror comedy. The film does as much winking at its core constituency as blinking blood out of its eyes.

The elegiac title and murderous conclusion of "The Departed" may have signaled a brutal, blood-red finality, but in Hollywood any potential franchise can be revived by a strong-enough dose of green. "The Departed" is by far director Martin Scorsese's biggest hit, with a gross of more than $260 million worldwide -- a number bound to escalate if the intricate thriller wins an Oscar next month for best picture (one of its five Academy Award nominations).