Opening in limited release this weekend is the John Sayles film Honeydripper, starring Danny Glover, Gary Clark Jr., and Charles Dutton. Its title derives from the Southern blues club, whose survival in 1950 Alabama, is at the heart of the tale. Kyle Smith in the New York Post suggests that the movie "won't draw a much bigger audience than that club." Glenn Whipp in the Los Angeles Daily News writes that the movie "simmers without ever really sizzling." Although the movie features a nearly all-black cast, there are no negative references here to such things as lynchings, rapes, and the Klan, comments Rafer Guzman in Newsday. "There's so much charm and life in The Honeydripper that it makes the bygone South seem like a delightful place to be," he remarks, adding dryly, "It surely was, for some." Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times, however, writes that such issues are "percolating below the surface" of the movie and suggests that the authentic blues music of the time is recommendation enough to see it. "Music may be Honeydripper's most indelible element and Sayles and longtime collaborator, composer Mason Daring, seamlessly incorporate several original songs alongside the soundtrack's period tunes. All of the musical performers with the exception of Glover are actual musicians and the level of authenticity elevates the film.," he says.

No new films are scheduled to open wide this weekend, leaving a clear field for National Treasure: Book of Secrets, starring Nicolas Cage, to repeat as the No. 1 film. Traditionally, films that open over the Christmas holiday do not suffer the usual decline of 50-percent or more in ticket sales during their second weekend. Treasure, which opened with $44.8 million over the three-day weekend last week, is expected to take in $35-40 million this weekend. I Am Legend is almost certain to repeat in second place but could be overtaken by Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, which opened on Christmas Day.

Organizers of the Berlin Film Festival have landed Filth and Wisdom, which marks Madonna's directorial debut, for the Feb. 7-17 event. The film, however, will not screen in competition but rather in the Panorama section, which generally showcases the work of first-time directors dealing with issue-oriented topics. Filth and Wisdom is reportedly a short film -- of about 30 minutes -- that deals with Madonna's own "life experiences." She has declined to discuss its content further. The Berlinale press office did not indicate whether she will come to Berlin to present the movie.

Hollywood studios are expected to report a grand total of $9.7 billion in ticket sales for 2007, a rise of about 4 percent from last year, according to Media by Numbers. But the box-office tracking service noted that gains were due to higher ticket prices, not increased admissions. Moreover, it was only in the past several weeks that the box office posted significant gains, with such movies as I Am Legend and National Treasure pushing weekly sales 30 percent or more above last year's. "Those movies really turned things around, giving us a nice boost at the very end of the year," Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers, told Reuters. Total admissions for the year remained flat at 1.42 billion, down significantly from the 1.6 billion posted in 2002.

As part of 20th Century Fox's agreement to permit its latest DVD releases to be available for "rent" on Apple's iTunes Store, the studio has also agreed to employ Apple's Fairplay copy protection scheme that will allow its DVDs to be transferred to Apple's video iPods (and presumably iPhones), according to published reports. Analysts are unsure whether the deal is likely to mark a turning point in mobile video. Relatively few full-length features have been downloaded from movie websites, including Apple's iTunes, largely because of the rather complicated process of finding them followed by the tedious wait, sometimes taking half a day or more on standard 700 MB broadband connections, to download them.

Although the late-night talk shows are set to return to the air next month, the Golden Globes ceremonies may not. On Thursday, Writers Guild strike coordinator Jeff Hermanson announced plans to picket the show, which would likely result in most celebrities shying away. (The New York Times reported that the WGA plans to place pickets "on the sidewalks around the Beverly Hilton Hotel," the site of the awards ceremony, thereby raising the prospect for the invited guests "of having to confront strikers as they walk up the red carpet." However, in the past the area around the hotel has been cordoned off by police and private security firms, preventing protesters from coming within shouting distance of the arriving celebrities.) Most industry observers agreed that if the Golden Globes telecast is canceled, so, too, will the Oscars telecast in February, if the strike is not settled by then. Meanwhile, Daily Variety reported that January 7 appears to be the likely date for the start of negotiations between the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

CNN got some unexpected promotion from rivals MSNBC and Fox News Channel Thursday during their reports about the assassination of former Pakistani President Benazir Bhutto, the TV Newser website observed Thursday. When an MSNBC anchor asked Sen. Arlen Specter, who is in Islamabad observing the elections, how he learned about the bombing, he replied, "Watching CNN." Later, during an appearance by Husain Haqqani, a former top aide to Bhutto, on FNC, Haqqani complained that he "saw evidence on CNN myself" that evidence at the scene was being destroyed by Pakistani authorities.

Saturday's telecast of the New England Patriots/New York Giants game is likely to rival a Super Bowl game when it comes to drawing an audience -- although that audience will be split three ways, between CBS, NBC, and the NFL's own cable network, published reports observed. It will mark the first time that two broadcast networks have carried an NFL game since the first Super Bowl game in 1967. Viewers will be tuning in to see whether the Patriots will be able to finish the regular season without a loss. (The last team to do so was the 1972 Miami Dolphins.) Patriots games have already set ratings records this year, both on cable and on the networks.

Incoming Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes is likely to movie quickly to dismantle the company by spinning off Time Warner Cable and selling AOL and Time Inc., according to Bloomberg News. Such a move would leave the company principally with its Warner Bros. and New Line film studios, its Turner Broadcasting cable networks, and HBO. The wire service quoted two financial analysts, Chris Marangi of Gamco Investors and Daniel Poole of National City Bank as saying that such a strategy would lift the company's stock, which has remained stagnant since Richard Parsons pulled it out of its tailspin five years ago. "The company is much better off today, but the stock hasn't gone anywhere," Poole told Bloomberg. "It's been very frustrating." Marangi suggested that by becoming the world's largest media company, Time Warner has become unwieldy. "There's nothing special necessarily about being the biggest, ''Marangi said. "It's more important to be nimble." Ironically, Bewkes is likely to look favorably on billionaire Carl Icahn's proposals for lifting the company's stock -- proposals that were successfully opposed by Parsons. Bloomberg noted that during a Nov. 7 conference call, Bewkes remarked, "We will be looking at anything that improves our strategic advantage."