Amanda Bynes enters settlement in hit-and-run case


LOS ANGELES (AP) Actress Amanda Bynes has resolved a misdemeanor hit-and-run case after entering into a civil settlement with other drivers.

Court records show Bynes entered a civil compromise to end the case and her attorney informed a Los Angeles court on Thursday. Bynes was charged with leaving the scene of accidents in April and August without providing the proper information.

Defendants in certain California misdemeanor cases are allowed to enter civil settlements to resolve criminal cases.

City Attorney's spokesman Frank Mateljan (mah-tell-JIN') says prosecutors objected to the dismissal, noting other instances in which Bynes has been cited for driving without a license and her pending driving under the influence case.

Bynes rose to fame starring in Nickelodeon's "All That" and has also starred in several films, including 2010's "Easy A."

Jenni Rivera's remains returned to So. California


LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) Jenni Rivera , the Latin music star killed in a weekend plane crash , has made her final journey home.

Three brothers of Rivera, a Southern California native, accompanied her remains on a Thursday night flight from Mexico to the Long Beach airport.

Escorted by police, her casket was then driven to a Long Beach mortuary, where dozens of fans waited.

Other fans gathered outside her mother's home in nearby Lakewood, where well-wishers have left a memorial of balloons, candles and flowers.

Rivera, 43, was perhaps the most successful female singer in grupero, a male-dominated Mexico regional style, and had branched out into acting and reality television. Known as the "Diva de la Banda," she sold 15 million records and was loved on both sides of the border for her down-to-earth style and songs about heartbreak and overcoming pain.

She and six other people were killed Sunday evening when a plane she was traveling in nose-dived from 28,000 feet to the ground while flying from Monterrey in northern Mexico to the central city of Toluca.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Results of DNA tests were pending, but her family conceded Thursday that she was dead.

"We have received 100 percent confirmation that my sister Jenni is gone to be with the Lord," a brother, Pedro Rivera Jr. , said during a news conference at the Lakewood home. "She is in the presence of God now. They did show pictures to my brothers of the body; it is not the full body."

Singer-songwriter Carole King to receive U.S. Gershwin prize


(Reuters) - American singer-songwriter Carole King will be awarded the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song , the U.S. national library said on Thursday.

The multiple Grammy Award winner co-wrote her first No. 1 hit at age 17 with then-husband Gerry Goffin and was the first female solo artist to sell more than 10 million copies of a single album, with her 1971 release "Tapestry."

The prize honors individuals for lifetime achievement in popular music, the library said. It is named after songwriting brothers George and Ira Gershwin .

King, now 70, topped the charts with the song "It's Too Late" in 1971, but is best known for her work performed by others, including "You've Got a Friend" by James Taylor and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin.

"I was so pleased when the venerable Library of Congress began honoring writers of popular songs with the Gershwin Prize ," King said in a statement. "I'm proud to be the fifth such honoree and the first woman among such distinguished company."

King and Goffin wrote some the biggest hits of the 1960s before their nine-year marriage ended in 1968. They rose to prominence in 1960 writing "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" for the Shirelles.

The duo also scored hits with "Take Good Care of My Baby," performed by Bobby Vee in 1961, "The Loco-Motion," performed by Little Eva in 1962 and "Pleasant Valley Sunday," performed by The Monkees in 1967, among others.

New York-born King did not hit it big as a singer until 1971, when "Tapestry" topped the U.S. album charts for 15 weeks, then a record for a female solo artist.

Past recipients of the award include Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney and songwriting tandem Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Xavier Briand)

Beck looks for new connection with 'Song Reader'


NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Beck Hansen wants you to think about the way music has changed over the last century and what that means about how human beings engage each other these days.

Laboring over the intricate and ornate details of his new "Song Reader" sheet music project , he was struck by how social music used to be something we've lost in the age of ear buds.

"You watch an old film and see how people would dance together in the '20s, '30s and '40s. You'd go out and people would switch partners and it was a way of social interaction," Hansen said. "It's something that was part of what brought people together. Playing music in the home is another aspect of that that's been lost. Again, I'm not on a campaign to get people to take up songs and play music in their home or anything. But it is interesting to me, the loss of that, what it means."

Beck hopes the "Song Reader" inspires some of us to pick up instruments and limber our vocal cords. It includes 20 songs annotated on sheet music that's been decorated in the style popular in the early 20th century when the songwriting industry was a thriving enterprise with billions of songs sold.

The 42-year-old singer notes in the book's preface that Bing Crosby's "Sweet Leilani" sold an estimated 54 million copies in 1937, meaning about 40 percent or more of the U.S. population was engaged in learning how to play that song. They were touching it directly, speeding it up, slowing it down, changing the lyrics and creating something new.

"There's popular bands now that people know the words to their songs and can sing along, but there's something about playing a song for yourself or for your friends and family that allows you to inhabit the song and by some sort of osmosis it becomes part of who you are in a way," he said. "So when I think of my great-grandparents' generations, music defined their lives in a different way than it does now."

Beck proposed the idea to McSweeney's Dave Eggers in 2004 and it soon blossomed into something more ambitious as the artist wrapped his mind around the challenge of not just writing a song, but presenting it in a classic way that also engages fans who might not be able to read music or play their own instruments.

They quickly agreed it would make no money, but it seemed like an idea worth exploring.

"And it seemed like only Beck would have thought of it," Eggers said in an email to the Associated Press. "It's a very generous project, in that he wrote a bunch of songs and just gives them to the world to interpret. That's a very expansive kind of generosity and inclusiveness that we're happy to be part of. On a formal level, we love projects like this, that are unprecedented, and that result in a beautiful object full of great art and great writing. And it all started with Beck. It's a testament to his groundbreaking approach to everything he does."

Beck hopes fans will record their own versions and upload them to the Internet so those songs grow into something more universal.

As for his own recorded music, that's a little more complicated.

Beck's not sure where he's headed at the moment. He recorded an album in 2008, but set it aside to work with Charlotte Gainsbourg on "IRM," which he wrote and produced. He's also been writing songs for soundtracks and special projects and producing artists like Thurston Moore, Stephen Malkmus and Dwight Yoakam. All that has left him feeling creatively satisfied, but he does acknowledge it's been a while since he released 2008's Danger Mouse-produced "Modern Guilt."

He says in many ways he's reached a crossroads he's not yet sure how to navigate.

"This last year I've been thinking about whether I'd finish those songs (from 2008), whether they're relevant or worthy of releasing. I know that doesn't sound very definitive," he said, laughing, "but that's the kind of place I'm in in this kind of limbo and, um, yeah."

The "Song Reader" spurred Beck to think about his own work in a new light as well. Spending six months finishing off the project after working on it sporadically over the years, he was struck by how much craft went into the creation of each song and how quickly music can come into existence today.

"There is so much music out there, to me," he said. "I don't know if it's just where I am in my own music making or if it's a product of the amount of music out there, but I feel like a piece of music does have to have a certain validity to be put out there and to ask people to listen. ... I feel like it's impossible for everyone to keep up, you know, so I guess I've been feeling like maybe there's something to picking what you're going to put out, about being more particular about what you put out."

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Online:

http://beck.com

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Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott.

From 'Sherlock' to 'Star Trek' for Cumberbatch


LONDON (AP) Benedict Cumberbatch has had a busy 24 hours.

The British actor was nominated for a Golden Globe, chased by the paparazzi in London and unveiled the first nine minutes of the new " Star Trek " movie Friday.

At a special IMAX presentation of the footage in London, Cumberbatch 's menacing character John Harrison was introduced at the beginning of the much-anticipated " Star Trek Into Darkness ."

The sequel kicks off at a fast pace, with Captain Kirk 's trademark quips, a volcano erupting and Spock in grave danger during a mission to save a planet.

Cumberbatch was not allowed to reveal much about the plot, but the 36-year-old did admit that he auditioned for the role of Harrison who he describes as "a phenomenal one-man weapon of mass destruction" on an iPhone in his friend's kitchen.

Fans wanting to see the footage can catch it in front of selected IMAX 3D screenings worldwide of "The Hobbit," beginning Friday.

"Star Trek Into Darkness," directed by J.J. Abrams, opens next May.

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The Associated Press spoke to the "Sherlock" star Friday after the presentation.

AP: "How did it feel coming here and seeing your face so big on that screen?"

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH: "I always get incredibly nervous, especially on an empty stomach having only had a macchiato. It makes your heart beat a lot faster and I don't like it. I look away when it's me, I don't like being my own audience. It's very weird. ... You probably saw my nostril hairs, counted how many pores I've got on my nose and which one of my teeth is wonky. "

AP: "It's obviously in the great tradition of having an English baddie."

CUMBERBATCH: "I'm following in the very hallowed footsteps of (Jeremy) Irons, (Alan) Rickman and Tom Hiddleston, my great friend in this summer's "Avengers." There are a few of us who have done it before, it stretches back as old as time. They get excited about these actors with theatre training who can do stuff. It's hugely flattering but you're not going to see me do a whole raft of villains after this."

AP: "Congratulations on the Golden Globe nomination (best actor in a miniseries for "Sherlock"). Did you celebrate?"

CUMBERBATCH: "I went out with my niece, who is my PA (personal assistant) Emily, and we got papped (followed by paparazzi) to the point that I couldn't actually see and I had to put my head down and just blink a couple of times. I was trying to get in the car with her and so immediately they presume, 'ah, beautiful blonde.' Poor girl, she's never experienced that before I've never experienced that like 15 of them hanging off the bonnet of the car."

AP: "Surely it's only going to get worse after this "Star Trek" film?"

CUMBERBATCH: "I hope not. I don't court it. I think you have to be in certain places at certain times. Of course, promoting a film you're out in the public and I'm proud to do that for the work I've done. But I'm quite a private person at heart."

Newtown: A special town shattered by tragedy


NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) At the crossroads that marks the center of this three-century-old New England postcard town stands a flagpole that's a kind of barometer. Every day, says Susan Osborne White , who has lived here all her life, "it tells me which way the wind is blowing" and she calls the local newspaper whenever the flag is lowered to half-staff, to ask why.

No one is asking that now as the flag forlonly hangs over a heartbroken, uncomprehending town.

Along streets where every window twinkles with holiday candles, police sirens wailed Friday. Over horse pastures in what was until fairly recently a rural town, helicopters' rotors thudded. In shops, televisions set to news stations blared.

Gesturing at a TV image of the shooting scene behind him at Newtown Hardware, Kyle Watts gave a pained cry, "I know that place," and shook his head. He's 18 and had gone to Sandy Hook Elementary School , and yet he and others working at the store felt they hardly knew where they were.

"A week or two ago," he said in disbelief, "we had the Christmas tree lighting. There was singing."

In normal times, this is a place that marks the year with a community tree lighting, an endless Labor Day parade running past the Main Street flagpole in which it's said everyone is either a participant or spectator or both, and an annual fund-raising lobster dinner at one of the five volunteer fire companies. It's a place where a benefactress, Mary Hawley, donated the classically designed town hall and the large, re-brick library, both set among towering oaks and maples. On a lake in town, part of one of the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn comedies was filmed.

It's become a bedroom community for commuters to Manhattan and Connecticut's more toney coastal towns, but it has retained the rural character that was set in 1708 when the colonial assembly of Connecticut permitted 36 men to lay out a new town. Some houses today date from not long after that, but there are typical modern subdivisions, too.

"It's still very much a small town in its heart. People really know each other," said Dan Cruson, the town's historian who has written a number of books about Newtown .

Sandy Hook is a section of town where the first grist mill was built along the rocky, rushing Pootatuck River. Other mills followed, and manufacturing grew in Sandy Hook. "It's always had its own identity," Cruson said, and in recent years it has been revitalized with smart restaurants and shops in Sandy Hook's center.

Every year, the local Lions Club raises thousands of dollars with a charity event along the river: Thousands of numbered yellow rubber ducks are sold for $5 each, then dumped in the swift current for a "race," the winner of which might get a big screen TV or a weekend in Manhattan 60 miles away.

In the crowd watching and cheering and at events like the fire department's lobster dinner, "everyone knows everyone. All of Sandy Hook is so tight," said Watts.

Maybe the school shooter was recognized when he entered and didn't seem a threat because he was known, he and others at the hardware store speculated. "You would never think ..." he said, leaving the thought incomplete.

The closeness has another dimension, of course.

"Everybody in town is going to help out. ... All of the churches are open tonight," said his co-worker Francis Oggeri, who's 22.

Scudder Smith agreed. "I was just down at the firehouse. Restaurants were sending in food," said Smith, publisher of the Newtown Bee , the weekly paper that has published since 1877.

He said Newtown is "getting bigger than the little country town that I grew up in. I've been here 77 years.... But it still has the feeling between neighbors that it always had."

The Bee had closed this week's edition with front-page reports on the schools "performing at or above target," on vandalism at a cemetery, and other stories when the first word of the shooting came in.

"We've been putting everything on our website. We were the first ones down there," Smith said. "We've had calls from Turkey, all over Europe."

A police scanner alerted the newsroom, and reporter Shannon Hicks said, "I listened long enough to figure out where this was unfolding and headed out." Her photo of terrified children being led across a school parking lot appeared around the world.

Asked about the town, Hicks said, "It's a good town. We have our issues" squabbling over the local budget, police news and the like "but this is not the kind of thing that's supposed to be one of them."

Standing by the cluttered antique wooden desk of the publisher, she looked down sadly. "I've already heard comparisons to Columbine," she said.

Folks here want to tell about the town that was here for 300 years before Friday's attack.

At the Bee, they mention how Halloween brings out so many children to Main Street houses one was made into a "princess castle" this year, another for years had a three-story web and giant spider in front that the paper has used clickers and counted more than 2,000 kids some years.

They mention the homely, simple things that might counter the horror.

"We have two garden clubs, and they get along, they don't hate each other," said Susan White, who checks the flagpole every day.

She laughed but then grew more serious, mentioning that her father was on the school board that authorized the building of the Sandy Hook school. "That was my school," she said.

Telling about an award her mother recently received for work on a 75-year-old scholarship fund in town, she said of the ceremony, "It was a Norman Rockwell moment."

And was this a Norman Rockwell town?

"We've got our ups and downs, but we're a very real town. 'Norman Rockwell' sounds like we're perfect ... but we're not very different from any other town," she said.

And now, she added, "People will stick together. They have to."

Common brings awareness to help free Peltier


NEW YORK (AP) When Harry Belafonte asked Common to participate in a benefit concert in support of freeing Native American activist Leonard Peltier , who is serving two life sentences for the 1975 execution-style deaths of two FBI agents, he did some research before giving his answer.

"I did my own due diligence ," Common said in a telephone interview Thursday with The Associated Press.

He decided to participate Friday in the "Bring Leonard Peltier Home Concert" at New York's Beacon Theatre , joining a lineup that includes Belafonte, Jackson Browne , Pete Seeger and others.

"If I can really help a man be free from something he was accused of and is innocent and wants to be with his family, I can't get up there and say I can't do this because I may have a chance to get more record sales, or this film company is not going to decide to use me," the 40-year-old rapper-actor said of his decision.

The concert is being held to raise awareness of Peltier's plea for clemency. Peltier has maintained that he was framed by the FBI for the deaths of Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, shot execution-style during a standoff on a South Dakota Indian reservation. He has appealed his conviction several times but has been denied. The 68-year-old was last denied parole in 2009 and won't be eligible again until 2024. His advocates say he has been in poor health in recent years.

Common is no stranger to standing up for what he believes, even when it's controversial. In 2000, he recorded "A Song for Assata" on behalf of Assata Shakur , formerly JoAnne Chesimard. She was convicted in the 1973 slaying of a New Jersey State trooper but escaped from prison and is believed to be living in Cuba.

The recording artist says he's not soft on crime and feels that convicted criminals should serve their time "in respect to the system." But he also feels that when someone is unjustly convicted "it's up to all of us to find the truth."

Peltier's story has been the subject of several films, most notably the Michael Apted documentary, "Incident at Oglala," narrated by Robert Redford. Songs about him include "Native Son" by U2 and "Freedom" by Rage Against the Machine.

Peltier is an author and artist, and has continued his activism behind bars.

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Online:

http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

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John Carucci covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/jcarucci_ap

A Minute With: Director Peter Jackson on shooting "The Hobbit"


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After bringing J.R.R. Tolkien 's " The Lord of the Rings " trilogy to life, filmmaker Peter Jackson is back in the world of Middle Earth with the author's prequel, " The Hobbit ."

The three-film series is due to open in U.S. theaters on Friday with " The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ."

The Oscar-winning director, 51, told Reuters about the 3D film, including the 48 frames per second (fps) format he used, which was widely debated by fans and critics.

Q: You originally intended " The Hobbit " to only be two parts. Why stretch it out to three?

A: "Back in July, we were near the end of our shoot and we started to talk about the things that we had to leave out of the movies. There's material at the end of The Return of the King' (the final part of ' The Lord of the Rings ' trilogy) in the appendices that takes place around the time of The Hobbit .'

"We were thinking, this is our last chance because it's very unlikely we're ever going to come back to Middle Earth as filmmakers. So we talked to the studio and next year we're going to be doing another 10 to 12 weeks of shooting because we're now adapting more of Tolkien's material."

Q: At what point did you decide you would direct the film yourself after originally handing it to Guillermo del Toro ?

A: "At the time (we wrote the script), I was worried about repeating myself and worried that I was competing with myself. I thought it would be interesting to have another director with a fresh eye coming in and telling the story. But after Guillermo left, having worked on script and the production for well over a year at that stage, I was very emotionally attached to it. I just thought, this is an opportunity I'm not going to say no to."

Q: You hired Gollum actor Andy Serkis to do second unit directing on the film, something he has never done before. What made you hand the task to a novice?

A: "I know how strongly Andy has been wanting to direct. One of the problems with second unit is that you tend to have conservative footage given to you by the director. They play it safe. I knew that I wouldn't get that from Andy because he's got such a ferocious energy. He goes for it and doesn't hold back. I knew that if Andy was the director I would be getting some interesting material, that it would have a life and energy to it."

Q: What inspired you to make a film in 48 fps?

A: "Four years ago I shot a six or seven minute King Kong ride for Universal Studios' tram ride in California. The reason we used the high frame rate was that we didn't want people to think it's a movie. You want that sense of reality, which you get from a high frame rate, of looking in to the real world. At the time, I thought it would be so cool to make a feature film with this process."

Q: Not everyone has embraced " The Hobbit " in 48 fps.

A: "For the last year and a half there's been speculation, largely negative, about it and I'm so relieved to have gotten to this point. I've been waiting for this moment when people can actually see it for themselves. Cinephiles and serious film critics who regard 24 fps as sacred are very negative and absolutely hate it. Anybody I've spoken to under the age of 20 thinks it's fantastic. I haven't heard a single negative thing from the young people, and these are the kids that are watching films on their iPads. These are the people I want to get back in the cinema."

Q: Why all the hoopla over a frame rate?

A: "Somehow as humans, we have a reaction to change that's partly fear driven. But there are so many ways to look at movies now and it's a choice that a filmmaker has. To me as a filmmaker, you've got to take the technology that's available in 2012, not the technology we've lived with since 1927, and say how can we enhance the experience in the cinema? How can we make it more immersive, more spectacular?"

Q: George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney for $4 billion. Do you think you will sell your New Zealand facility Weta someday?

A: "I would if I want to retire at some stage and want to have a nice easy life, which will hopefully happen one day. But in the foreseeable future, the fact that I'm an owner of my own digital effects facility is a fantastic advantage for me."

Q: How so?

A: "When we asked the studio if we could shoot The Hobbit ' at 48 fps, we promised the budget would be the same. But it actually does have a cost implication because you've got to render twice as many frames and the rendering takes more time. The fact that we owned Weta and could absorb that in-house was actually part of the reason we were able to do the 48 frames."

(Editing by Patricia Reaney)

Van Gogh dazzles at Netherlands' Kroeller-Mueller


AMSTERDAM (AP) With the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam closed for renovations until April, the world's second-largest collection of the tortured Dutch master's work is stepping into the limelight.

The Kroeller-Mueller museum in the eastern Netherlands is lesser-known but still considered a jewel among connoisseurs. It has revamped the layout of its central rooms, giving more space and more focus to its very best works.

This week it is announcing "Vincent is Back," because after a time in which some of its 91 Vincent Van Gogh paintings, 180 drawings and other works have been on loan, they are set to return in style.

The museum has already opened "Native Soil," the first of a two-part exhibition looking at the spectacular changes that Van Gogh underwent in his artistic career, which took place almost entirely in the decade from 1880 to 1890. The appropriately wintery exhibit focuses on Van Gogh's formative years in the Netherlands, with a dark palette and simple, somber subjects.

"Native Soil" culminates in what is widely regarded as Van Gogh's first great masterpiece, the 1885 "Potato Eaters." It also shows smaller works that presage the colorful brilliance to come, such as the 1885 "Head of a Woman Wearing a White Hat," which may have been part of Van Gogh's preparations for "Potato Eaters," and the emotive 1882 study "Sorrowful Old Man" in black chalk.

Beginning in April, the "Land of Light" exhibition will show off the incredible range of color and energy in Van Gogh's late works. Much of the collection from both periods will remain on display throughout the year, including later jewels such as his 1888 "Terrace of a Cafe at Night." Also remaining on display are a series of excellent portraits, including a famous 1887 self-portrait, and others such as the 1889 "Portrait of Joseph Roulin."

Although the Kroeller-Mueller Museum is profiling its Van Gogh works, its collection ranges well beyond that with important paintings by Georges Seurat , Pablo Picasso, Fernand Leger, Piet Mondrian and Giorgio de Chirico . It also features one of Europe's best sculpture gardens, with works by Auguste Rodin , Henry Moore, Niki de Saint Phalle and many others.

The museum is located in Otterlo, Netherlands , not far from the German border.

For the more adventurous, one of the museum's special attractions is the option to begin a visit at one of three park entrances rather than the museum itself. It's easy to borrow one of hundreds of free bicycles and cycle several kilometers (miles) on well-marked paths through the park's gentle dunes and pine trees to the museum.

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On the Net: http://www.kmm.nl

'Skyfall' launches back to top spot with $10.8M


LOS ANGELES (AP) The James Bond blockbuster "Skyfall" has risen back to the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office, taking in $10.8 million.

That brought its domestic total to $261.4 million and its worldwide haul to a franchise record of $918 million.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:

1. "Skyfall," Sony , $10,780,201, 3,401 locations, $3,170 average, $261,400,281, five weeks.

2. "Rise of the Guardians," Paramount, $10,400,618, 3,639 locations, $2,858 average, $61,774,192, three weeks.

3. " The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2," Summit, $9,156,265, 3,646 locations, $2,511 average, $268,691,029, four weeks.

4. "Lincoln," $8,916,813, 2,014 locations, $4,427 average, $97,137,447, five weeks.

5. "Life of Pi," Fox, $8,330,764, 2,946 locations, $2,828 average, $60,948,293, three weeks.

6. "Playing For Keeps," FilmDistrict, $5,750,288, 2,837 locations, $2,027 average, $5,750,288, one week.

7. "Wreck-It Ralph," Disney, $4,859,368, 2,746 locations, $1,770 average, $164,402,934, six weeks.

8. "Red Dawn," FilmDistrict, $4,236,105, 2,754 locations, $1,538 average, $37,240,920, three weeks.

9. "Flight," Paramount, $3,130,305, 2,431 locations, $1,288 average, $86,202,541, six weeks.

10. "Killing Them Softly," Weinstein Co., $2,806,901, 2,424 locations, $1,158 average, $11,830,638, two weeks.

11. "Silver Linings Playbook," Weinstein Co., $2,171,665, 371 locations, $5,854 average, $13,964,405, four weeks.

12. "Anna Karenina," Focus, $1,544,859, 422 locations, $3,661 average, $6,603,042, four weeks.

13. "The Collection," LD Entertainment, $1,487,655, 1,403 locations, $1,060 average, $5,455,328, two weeks.

14. "Argo," Warner Bros., $1,482,346, 944 locations, $1,570 average, $103,160,015, nine weeks.

15. "End of Watch," Open Road Films, $751,623, 1,259 locations, $597 average, $39,989,766, 12 weeks.

16. "Hitchcock," Fox Searchlight , $712,544, 181 locations, $3,937 average, $1,661,670, three weeks.

17. "Talaash," Reliance Big Pictures, $449,195, 161 locations, $2,790 average, $2,397,909, two weeks.

18. "Taken 2," Fox, $387,227, 430 locations, $901 average, $137,700,304, 10 weeks.

19. "Pitch Perfect," Universal, $305,765, 387 locations, $790 average, $63,517,408, 11 weeks.

20. "The Sessions," Fox, $218,973, 197 locations, $1,112 average, $4,948,342, eight weeks.

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Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp. ; Sony , Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc. ; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co. ; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc. ; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. ; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc. ; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.