‘Ender’s Game’ to score at box office. Tabloid trial gets tawdry.

After the coffee. Before unloading the leftover candy.

The Skinny: After having to get up at 5 a.m. for earnings calls the last two days (thank you, Comcast and Time Warner Cable), I got to sleep until 5:35 a.m. this morning. Boy do I feel rested! Hope everyone had a nice Halloween. Today’s roundup includes the weekend box office preview and some tabloid news in a trial about tabloids.

Daily Dose: Concerned about the decline in listeners to AM radio, the Federal Communications Commission is looking to make technological changes to the medium that it hopes will boost power for stations and make the band more viable to compete with FM and satellite. Here’s a link to the FCC’s proposal on how to fix AM radio.

ON LOCATION: Where the cameras roll

Game over. The sci-fi flick “Ender’s Game” should be able to hold off the competition at the box office this weekend and take in about $23 million. Also opening is the animated kids movie “Free Birds,” which is expected to make about $20 million, and “Last Vegas” starring Michael Douglas and Robert De Niro, which will skew older and may bring in about $15 million. Weekend box office previews from the Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter.

Work and play. An affair between Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson when both were top executives at News Corp.’s British tabloid empire became the topic of discussion at their phone hacking trial. Prosecutors explained the revelation was necessary because it shows how close the two were and likely means there were few secrets between them about activities at the tabloids. Trial coverage from the New York Times.

Looking over their shoulders. For all the talk about people dropping pay TV in favor of the Internet, the immediate threat to cable companies are rival services from phone companies. The Wall Street Journal notes that Verizon and AT&T are picking up customers at a rate that correlates with subscriber losses experienced by some of the nation’s biggest cable operators. Time Warner Cable, meanwhile, took it on the chin from its distribution fight, notes the Los Angeles Times.

PHOTOS: Behind the scenes of movies and TV

That’s a laugher. Tina Fey is developing a new sitcom for NBC starring Ellie Kemper as a woman who escapes a cult and winds up in New York City to start her life over. Here’s a story from Variety and another piece from Defamer that suggests the subject matter of the show was initially much more twisted.

Inside the Los Angeles Times: Kenneth Turan on “Ender’s Game.” Mary McNamara on Showtime’s “Time of Death.”

Follow me on Twitter and you’ll forget it’s already November. @JBFlint.