NEWSMAKERS

NEWSMAKERS

Comcast COO Burke to succeed Zucker

NEW YORK

Comcast Chief Operating Officer Steve Burke will succeed Jeff Zucker as the new CEO of NBC Universal later this year, when Comcast takes control of the broadcaster.

Comcast Corp. and General Electric Co., which owns NBC, said Sunday that Burke will work with Zucker during the transition. Zucker, who has spent his entire career at NBC, said last week that he would be stepping down after the change in control.

The possibility of a change-in-command had been looming since last December, when Comcast agreed to buy a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from Fairfield, Conn.-based GE. That deal, worth $13.75 billion, still hasn’t cleared regulatory hurdles, but is expected to be completed around the end of the year.

‘Wall Street’ leads with $19 million debut

LOS ANGELES

Movie fans are investing in Michael Douglas and Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” which opened as the No. 1 weekend movie with $19 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The 20th Century Fox release led a crop of so-so-to-weak newcomers, though the sequel to Douglas and Stone’s 1987 hit “Wall Street” did not quite set off a bull market at the box office.

The Warner Bros. animated adventure “Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole” was No. 2 with a soft opening of $16.3 million.

It finished barely ahead of the $16 million haul for Warner’s “The Town,” the Ben Affleck heist drama that was the previous weekend’s No. 1 release. “The Town” held up well and raised its 10-day total to $49.1 million, giving it a solid shot at hitting the $100 million mark, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner.

Sony’s teen comedy “Easy A,” which had been No. 2 a weekend earlier, also held up well with $10.7 million to finish at No. 4. “Easy A” lifted its 10-day total to $32.8 million.

Disney’s mother-daughter comedy “You Again,” starring Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver, debuted at No. 5 with an anemic $8.3 million.

Playing in narrower release, the Will Ferrell-produced teen comedy “The Virginity Hit” flopped with just $300,000. The Sony release debuted in 700 theaters, averaging a paltry $429 a cinema. That compared with $5,330 in 3,565 theaters for the “Wall Street” sequel.

Associated Press