Shrek played the 'Jolly Green Giant' at the box office over the weekend, pulling in an impressive $42.1 million, the second largest opening for an animated film ever.

Marvel released its first quarter results today, and despite a loss of around $12.7 million, the news was actually pretty good for retailers that depend on a consistent product flow from one of the largest suppliers of comics and toys to pop culture stores.

Ghost World , the film made from Daniel Clowes' graphic novel, looks like it may be one of the sleeper hits in a summer filled with sequels and gross-out teen comedies.

The first issue of Blender , a spin-off from the popular Maxim magazine empire, includes rave reviews of Uncanny X-Men #394, by Joe Casey and Ian Churchill, and New X-Men #114 by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.

Overcoming an early spate of bad reviews, The Mummy Returns started the summer movie season off with a bang last weekend by bringing in $70.1 million, the largest non-holiday opening in box office history.

Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut has introduced a bill, 'The Media Marketing Accountability Act of 2001,' which has ramifications for several sectors of the pop culture marketplace.

Manga Entertainment has confirmed to ICv2 that the versions of the two Evangelion movies that it will release in November will not be edited specially for the U.S. market. AD Vision had cut out some scenes from its Evangelion releases, but Manga maintains that they will be able to present the Japanese versions in their entirety and still keep a '13+' rating.

Inkworks has completed its trifecta of summer movie projects by adding Jurassic Park 3 to its stable, which already included two of the season's most anticipated films, The Mummy Returns and Tomb Raider. The Jurassic Park cards will be produced using a new process.

Ken Tucker reviewed J. Michael Stracynski's first issue of Spider-Man ( Amazing Spider-Man #30) in the April 20th issue of Entertainment Weekly , on newsstands this week. The review, which leads off the 'Books Section' (page 66) is quite favorable and includes a sample panel of art from John Romita, Jr.

The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that manufacturers intend to ship a total of 17 million players to retail establishments in the U.S. this year, which means that the number of DVD players in the U.S could double by the start of 2002.