There was more treat than trick about the decision to screen Rob Zombie's remake (the studio called it a "re-imagining") of Halloween over the Labor Day holiday. By Sunday, the film had already grossed more than any other film ever released over the holiday -- $26.5 million. The previous record was set two years ago when Transporter 2 opened with $16.5 million. (Labor Day is typically the slowest holiday period of the year at the box office, as young moviegoers are preparing to head back to school.) The film also gave a boost to the horror genre, which had come upon hard times this year. As MGM distribution chief Clark Woods observed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times: "Only a couple weeks ago, people were talking about the death of the horror movie. ... The genre sure wasn't dead this weekend." Coming in second was Sony's Superbad, which had reigned as the top box-office attraction during the previous two weeks. It grossed $12.2 million, slightly more than the No. 3 film, Universal's Balls of Fury, which debuted with $11.5 million. The rest of the box office looked as frightful as No. 1, with most other films drawing a piddling amount and pulling the average down below what it was a year ago. Nevertheless, the weekend will cap an extraordinary summer for the box office, which is expected to finish with a total haul of about $4.15 billion (first weekend of May through Labor Day).

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates: 1. Halloween, $26.5 million; 2. Superbad, $12.2 million; 3. Balls of Fury, $11.5 million; 4. The Bourne Ultimatum 10.1 million; 5. Mr. Bean's Holiday, $5.9 million; 6. Rush Hour 3, $5.3 million; 7. The Nanny Diaries, $5.1 million; 8. Death Sentence, $4.1 million; 9. Stardust, $3 million; 10. War, $2.3 million.

Director Brian De Palma's latest film, based on the alleged rape and murder of an Iraqi teenager by U.S. troops and the slaughter of her family, has received widespread admiration from critics attending the Venice Film Festival. In Redacted, writes Ray Bennett in The Hollywood Reporter, "De Palma uses all his considerable talent to make clear what has happened to these men." (In the film De Palma imagines one of them captured by vicious jihadists who behead him on a video that is posted on the Internet.) David Gritten in the London Daily Telegraph comments: "The combination of De Palma's visceral style and the horrifying subject matter left me reeling." But Derek Elley in Daily Variety remarks that "the bullet veers far off the mark" in the film and that it "can't make up its mind about how to package its anger in an alternative cinematic form." In an interview with Time magazine, De Palma said that the word "redacted" refers to the military's term for censoring servicemen's letters and other comments on the war, and that his film is intended to present images of it that the public has never been permitted to see. "If we get these pictures and stories in front of a mass audience, maybe it will do something," he told the magazine. But Yael Lavie, a senior producer for Sky News, commented that the events on which the film was based represented "an isolated incident. Redacted will give the enemy another impression." And former Hollywood agent Pat Dollard, who made the patriotic documentary Young Americans about U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq, called the film part of "a campaign to smear U.S. troops in Iraq" and an effort to make "an anti-war propaganda movie fellow liberals will love all the way to Oscar."

A "scratch and sniff" ad for the upcoming movie Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium that will appear in next Sunday's Los Angeles Times will feature the aroma of frosted cake embedded into ink used in the ad, the New York Times reported today (Monday). Fox Walden, which produced the movie, says it spent $110,000 for the ad, about double what an ordinary full-page ad in the Times would cost. "This was interesting because it ties in so perfectly with what the movie is about, a toy store where toys come alive," Fox Walden marketing chief Jeffrey Godsick told the Times. "It will increase the time people spend with the ad and the pass-around factor."

Spike Lee has been named an "honorary judge" of the Babelgum Online Film Festival, which seeks to recognize outstanding international filmmakers whose work appears on the Internet. In an announcement Saturday at the Venice Film Festival, Babelgum CEO Valerio Zingarelli said that the jury will be composed of "industry experts drawn from around the world" and that the general public will also have the opportunity to vote for finalists. It was not clear what role an honorary judge will have in the selection process, but Lee was quoted in Babelgum's announcement as applauding the Babelgum festival for showcasing the work of independent filmmakers, and adding that it "combines the value of a film festival with the openness of the Internet for those seeking to advance their careers." The festival, which is open to films screened at more traditional festivals from January 2007 to February 2008, will be showed on www.babelgum.com beginning February 15. Winners will be announced in April.

CBS's Katie Couric made her first appearance from Iraq on Sunday's Face the Nation Sunday (she delivers her first reports for the CBS Evening News from there beginning Tuesday) and said that she "definitely got the impression" that Gen. David Petraeus will say this week that the U.S. "surge" is working. Asked by host Bob Schieffer if she had seen anything that surprised her, she replied, "I was surprised, you know, after I went to eastern Baghdad, I was taken to the Allawi market ... and, you know, this market seems to be thriving. ... And so, you do see signs of life that seem to be normal. Of course, that's what the U.S. military wants me to see, so you have to keep that in mind as well. But I think there are definitely areas where the situation is improving." Meanwhile, Couric's trip continues to generate controversy. In the New York Daily News Sunday, TV columnist David Bianculli likened Couric's visit to the surge: "If she doesn't impress viewers at home with her news-gathering prowess during this week's trip to Iraq and Syria, she and CBS will have lost more than they've gained." St. Petersburg Times columnist and editorial board member Bill Maxwell wondered whether Couric's trip wasn't more about ratings than politics and noted that the network already has correspondent Lara Logan reporting from the war zone. If she has gone there, he wrote, "to enhance her personal stature -- at the risk of being killed, or seriously injured, and leaving her young daughters parentless -- I believe her adventure is selfish and foolish."

In what amounted to a blistering hardball maneuver, Apple announced on Friday that it will not offer any of NBC's shows for the coming season on its iTunes Music Store. The announcement came in a response to an earlier announcement by NBC that it would not renew its contract with Apple when it expires at the end of the year. But some analysts suggested that NBC's stance was merely a negotiating ploy to force Apple to increase the fees it charges for downloads of the network's programs while still allowing consumers to sample new programs, such as Bionic Woman, Chuck, and Journeyman at their leisure when the shows launch this month. In a statement, Eddy Cue, Apple's ITunes head, said that NBC was demanding an increase in the download charge to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99. "We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase." In response, an NBC spokesman said that Apple's pricing "is designed to drive sales of Apple devices at the expense of those who create the content that make these devices worth buying." (Some critics of the NBC stance immediately pointed out that the greater the number of video iPods sold by Apple, the larger the market for NBC's content.) He added that NBC was seeking "flexibility" in its pricing and the ability to package some episodes together.

ABC has decided not to make the pilot episode of its much-talked-about fall series Pushing Daisies available for previewing on the Internet. Although scenes from the episode will likely be posted on YouTube and other video-sharing websites, ABC marketing chief Michael Benson told the Associated Press that presenting the full episode online could cannibalize the ratings for the actual show. "I have the same approach that Coca-Cola might have when they're launching a product," Benson said. "The idea is to get people to sample a product, then come in and buy more. You don't give a six-pack; you give a sample and hope they'll buy a six-pack if they like it."