The Skinny: The Morning Fix wishes everyone a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend. Stay out of trouble. I know I'm going to try to do that. Friday's headlines include the latest chapter in the fight between the broadcast networks and satellite broadcaster Dish Communications, a preview of the weekend box office and a review of "Men in Black 3."

Daily Dose:While the broadcast networks are bringing out the legal guns to try to shut down the AutoHop, satellite broadcaster Dish Network's new commercial-skipping feature (see below), an industry...

Just three months after shipping his first game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling has reportedly laid off the entire staff of his two development studios, Big Huge Games and 38 Studios, and shut down the operations.

They had roughly 400 employees combined. Messages left for Schilling's spokesman, Adam Kahn, were not immediately returned.

Schilling's 38 Studios had been working on a massively expensive multiplayer online game that was supposed to be released later this year. That work was abruptly aborted on Thursday when Schilling handed out the pink...

The legal battle between Dish Communications and the broadcast networks over the satellite broadcaster's new feature that makes it easier for its subscribers to skip commercials may be the biggest issue between the two sides -- but it isn't the only one.

In an interview, David Shull, Dish's senior vice president of programming, expressed frustration over the networks' growing willingness to offer their content on digital platforms such as Hulu and iTunes. That makes the programming that Dish is paying for less valuable, Shull said, and was one of the reasons that it pushed its AutoHop device.

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AMC Entertainment Chief Executive Gerry Lopez said the Chinese conglomerate poised to take over the nation's second largest theater chain would provide needed debt relief and resources to upgrade many of its cinemas across the country.

"We're going from a group of five financial owners -- private equity funds -- to a single strategic, long-term buyer who happens to love this business and who is already in this business," Lopez said in an interview Thursday. "For us, this is nothing but great news."

After a year of talks, Dalian Wanda Group, China's largest theater operator, reached a deal last...

Those awaiting the start of legal fireworks betweenActivision Blizzard Inc.and the former developers of the multibillion-dollar Call of Duty game franchise will have to hold their collective breath a little longer.

California Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle on Thursday ordered that the trial begin June 1, three days after the original start date. Berle cited logistical difficulties assembling a sufficient jury pool.

Berle also stipulated that the trial must end by July 2, giving 22 business days to try the case. Attorneys for each party had requested 30 business days, given the complexities of...

Fox Broadcasting Co. has sued Dish Network, becoming the first television network to fire a legal salvo over the satellite company's controversial new ad-skipping device called AutoHop.

Dish, meanwhile, filed its own lawsuit, which asks a federal judge to declare that AutoHop violates no copyright laws. Dish sued not only Fox, but also CBS, Walt Disney-owned ABC, and Comcast Corp. controlled-NBC.

The television industry is grappling with new technologies that threaten to undercut the billions of dollars a year that the networks collect from advertisers to run 30- to 60-second television...

The two-hour season finale of Fox's"American Idol" was the least watched finale in the show's history with a smaller audience than even Season 1's finale — which aired in the summer.

Fox projected that 21.5-million people tuned in to see Phillip Phillips get voted the winner of the 11th season finale of the singing competition. The star-studded show also featured appearances by John Fogerty, Rhianna and Reba McEntire. "American Idol" judge Steven Tyler also performed with his band Aerosmith.

Those numbers, while still strong by the standards of today's fractured media landscape, represent...

The Men in Black are invading theaters this weekend with a mission that others have failed to achieve: knock "The Avengers" off the No. 1 box-office perch.

Sony Pictures' big-budget 3-D sequel "Men in Black 3" is on track to gross around $250 million worldwide over the long Memorial Day weekend, most of which should come from overseas markets.

In the U.S. and Canada, the film is expected to generate about $80 million over the four-day holiday period from Friday through Monday, said people who have seen pre-release tracking surveys.

That would be about twice as much as "The Avengers" is likely to...

After the coffee. Before getting over jet lag.

The Skinny: Caught the finale of "American idol" on Fox on Wednesday night on the flight back from Boston. Couldn't they have done that show in an hour? Thursday's headlines include the efforts to woo viewers to "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," a delay in the release of the newest "G.I. Joe" movie, and a top cable executive saying there are too many channels out there.

Daily Dose:Ever wonder how a cable channel starts to lose its identity and become like every other channel? It usually starts small. On Wednesday, Variety reported that Discovery...

Paramount Pictures has agreed to pay $18.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a movie extra who sustained a serious head injury during filming of the blockbuster Paramount Pictures movie "Transformers: Dark of the Moon."

The accident on Sept. 1, 2010, left Cedillo with permanent brain injuries. The Chicago resident had a portion of her skull removed and suffers from memory problems, seizures and is blind in...