Studio executives who have had to contend with competition from such outside distractions as the Super Bowl and Oscar telecasts and inclement weather will have a new phenomenon to worry about this weekend -- the debut of the video game Grand Theft Auto IV, which some reviewers have described as the best game title in history. The game, which went on sale on Tuesday, might very well be occupying the attention of the key group that populates movie theaters on weekends, teenage males and their dates. While many analysts have predicted that Iron Man, which debuts Thursday, will earn about $70 million this weekend, sales of GTA-IV are expected to exceed the record of $300 million for the first week of Halo 3 last year. John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, the world's biggest video-games publisher, told the London Financial Times that he has heard movie executives expressing fear that the game could "kill" Iron Man. "I don't think I've ever heard of that before," he says. "There's a big reset happening now." Electronic Arts has offered to buy Take Two, which publishes the GTA games, for $2 billion. But Geoff Ammer, Marvel Studios' marketing chief, predicted that Iron Man and GTA-IV will "coexist" this weekend.

Warner Bros. plans to make home theaters look much like theaters did a half century ago with the release of the classic How the West Was Won, starring John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda, on Blu-ray disc in August. The high-definition video will offer a "SmileBox" version -- essentially making the screen look as if it were curved like an old Cinerama screen. Only a handful of features were made in the Cinerama process, which featured a screen so large that it wrapped around the audience's field of vision, producing a 3D effect. The screen was so large that it took three projectors to fill it -- one projecting onto the left third of the screen, another the middle, and another the right. Likewise, the movies were shot with a special camera that shot the three images simultaneously. While nature documentaries and thrill-ride experiences were initially released in the Cinerama process, 1962's How the West was Won was the first feature film to be filmed and projected in the process. Warner Home Video's Blu-ray release will also include the documentary Cinerama Adventure.

While DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg has pledged to make all of his studio's future films in digital 3-D, he may not find a lot of theaters in which to show them. In a conference call with analysts on Tuesday, Katzenberg said that the conversion of theaters to 3-D has "dragged along, and it's been pretty disappointing." He noted that the addition of 3-D to the production of an animated film will cost the company $15 million more per film. But whether that additional investment will pay off, given the number of theaters that are currently equipped to show 3-D films, "is the thing up for grabs right now," he said. Meanwhile DreamWorks Animation said that its first-quarter profits came in at $26.1 million versus $15.4 million a year ago -- a 69-percent jump. Profits were driven by sales of Shrek the Third DVDs and the overseas ticket sales for Bee Movie.

Reporters stalking the offices of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, where closed bargaining talks with the Screen Actors are taking place, have been unable to receive even a hint from participants about what has been going on inside. That has led most to conclude that little headway has been made and that it is likely that the talks will end this week without an agreement, thereby raising the prospects of another industry strike at the end of June. In a message to members on Tuesday, SAG leaders laid out a list of "priorities" submitted to the AMPTP representatives, all of which concerned work in films and TV, suggesting that the union might make concessions on new media -- principally DVDs and the Internet -- in return for improved compensation and benefits packages for traditional media.

In Tuesday's edition of Studio Briefing, we mentioned that United Artists was founded in 1919 by actors Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks. We neglected to mention that a fourth founder was the director D.W. Griffith.

AOL remained an albatross around the neck of Time Warner during the first quarter as profits from the Internet-access business plummeted a ghastly 73 percent versus the same quarter a year ago. The company's decision to drop its subscription model and provide AOL free in the hope of expanding the user base and thereby attract more advertiser dollars appeared doomed. AOL's advertising dollars did rise in the quarter -- but by only one percent, while much of its subscription revenue disappeared. As a result, Time Warner reported its overall first-quarter profit fell 36 percent to $771 million from $1.2 billion a year ago, significantly lower than analysts' forecasts. In a statement, Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes said that the company would finally do what several prominent shareholders had been urging it to do for years -- spin off its successful cable business. Such a strategy had been resisted by Bewkes's predecessor, Richard Parsons. "We've decided that a complete structural separation of Time Warner Cable, under the right circumstances, is in the best interests of both companies' shareholders," Bewkes said in the statement. Sales at the cable unit rose 8 percent to $4.16 billion during the period, although income declined 12 percent to $242 million from last year, when it recorded a gain from the sale of some cable systems. Profits at its film business also fell 25 percent to $183 million as a result of costs related to the shutting down of New Line Cinema and merging it with Warner Bros. Revenue, however, increased 3.5 percent to $2.84 billion. Profits at its cable networks, including HBO and the Turner Broadcasting channels rose 1.6 percent to $874 million as sales rose $2.66 billion. Surprisingly -- given the overall slump in the print news business -- earnings at Time Inc., which publishes Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, People, and Sports Illustrated, more than doubled to $93 million.

Thanks in large measure to the success of new episodes of its Thursday-night lineup, CBS recaptured the weekly primetime ratings crown last week. But the news wasn't all good. Ratings for the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric fell once again to a new record low as it averaged just 5.34 million viewers (3.7 rating and an 8 share), with analysts predicting that it will decline even further as recent firings of top news personalities at local CBS stations in key markets draw audiences away from those stations, undercutting their lead-in strength for the Couric newscast. By contrast, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams attracted 8.02 million viewers (5.5/12) edging out ABC's World News with Charles Gibson, which averaged 7.79 million viewers (5.4/12).

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research: 1. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 14.2/22; 2. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 13.7/21; 3. Dancing With the Stars (Monday), ABC, 11.7/18; 4. Dancing With the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 11.6/18; 5. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 10.7/16; 6. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 10.6/16; 7. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 10.3/16; 8. CSI: Miami, CBS, 9.3/15; 9. Without a Trace, CBS, 9.2/15; 10. NCIS, CBS, 9.1/14.

As usual, Fox's American Idol dominated Tuesday's ratings as the performance edition posted a 14.7 rating and a 23 share during the 8:00 p.m. hour. Nevertheless, CBS's NCIS remained a tough competitor as it placed second with a 9.1/14. ABC's Dancing With the Stars took over the lead at 9:00 p.m. with a huge 11.6/18. The debut of CBS's Shark in the time period posted a 6.7/10, behind second-place Hell's Kitchen on Fox, which drew a 7.4/11. NBC moved into the lead at 10:00 p.m. as Law & Order: SVU with an 8.4/14, murdering ABC's Women's Murder Club which premiered in the time period with a 5.6/10.

In a surprise announcment, ITV CEO Dawn Airey said that she is leaving the U.K.'s largest commercial TV company to join RTL, as chairman and CEO of RTL's Channel Five network. The move was especially startling given the fact that she had only recently been appointed to ITV's board of directors amid speculation that she was being further groomed to succeed ITV Executive Chairman Michael Grade when Grade steps down in two years. Airey had served as Five's CEO between 2000 and 2003. She will replace Jane Lighting, who apparently had been kept in the dark about negotiations with Airey. In a message to staff, Lighting said that she was "not in a position" to comment on the decision, "but I hope to be able to do so soon. ... I am intending to be back in the office tomorrow." RTL is a pan-European broadcasting company headquartered in Luxembourg and controlled by German media conglomerate Bertelsmann.

BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the U.K. broadcaster, has struck a deal with Apple to make its programming available for purchase and downloading from the iTunes Store. The programs, which became available on Tuesday, include single epsodes and full seasons of the sci-fi drama Torchwood, the comedy Little Britain, and the costume drama Robin Hood. Each episode costs $1.99.