Sideshow: Way 'Up' there at the box office

Up

's up and away.

The animated action comedy Up took flight with a $68.2 million opening weekend, maintaining a perfect box-office track record for Pixar Animation, whose 10 films all have been commercial and critical hits.

Up had the third-best opening for a film from Disney-owned Pixar, just behind the $70 million debuts for Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Like its predecessors, which include WALL-E, the Toy Story movies, and Ratatouille, Up earned glowing reviews from critics.

"Usually things that are very popular with audiences don't necessarily go over that well with critics. These things do both, and pretty much consistently every time," said Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "The Disney-Pixar collaboration is probably the closet thing to box-office perfection out there."

Up took over the No. 1 spot from Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, which slipped to second place with $25.5 million. The weekend's other new wide release, director Sam Raimi's horror tale Drag Me to Hell, opened at No. 3 with $16.6 million. Terminator Salvation was No. 4, with $16.1 million.

Coming in at No. 5, Star Trek banked $12.8 million and passed the computer-animated Monsters vs. Aliens as the year's top-grossing movie so far, with $209.5 million.

- Associated Press

The Southern California woman who gave birth to the world's longest-surviving set of octuplets has reportedly signed a deal to star in a reality television series.

People magazine reported yesterday that Nadya Suleman had agreed to be filmed by a British production company. Suleman gave birth to the six boys and two girls in January and also has six other children.

Suleman lawyer Jeff Czech says production company Eyeworks hasn't yet sold the proposed show to any American television network and plans to air the series on British TV.

He says film crews will not follow Suleman and her children 24 hours a day, but will document birthdays and special family events, according to People.

- AP

Police in Los Angeles say

Point Break

actress

Lori Petty

has been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving after she struck and injured a skateboarder.

Police spokesman Bruce Borihanh says Petty, 45, was arrested Saturday night in the Venice neighborhood of L.A. He says the unidentified skateboarder was treated for injuries at the scene.

Petty was booked into jail early yesterday and released after posting $100,000 bail. She starred in the 1995 movie Tank Girl and appeared in A League of Their Own.

- AP

Live Nation Inc., the world's largest concert promoter, is opening the summer season with a promotion every Wednesday that eliminates some ticket fees, the surcharges that have caused fans to revile its soon-to-be merger partner, Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc.

Live Nation is scrapping fees for U.S. amphitheater lawn seats this summer in a 24-hour sale on its Web site starting at 12:01 a.m. in every local time zone on Wednesday. (Locally, the Susquehanna Bank Center is a Live Nation venue.) Fans will save around $9 to $12 on a ticket that typically costs $20 to $25.

Artists playing at the 43 Live Nation venues covered by the promotion include Aerosmith, Coldplay, Phish, Nickelback, and Kid Rock. Five million tickets are up for grabs this Wednesday.

The company plans to continue the promotion on a smaller scale every Wednesday this summer. Despite the recession, the company said in May that ticket sales for its summer concerts were ahead of last year's pace. Still, Live Nation says about 40 percent of all concert seats go empty.