Variety reported today that Fellowship of the Ring, the first installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, earned over $17 million in its opening day of release on Wednesday.

The year-end report for The Lycos 50, which totals the number of searches for particular topics through the Lycos search engine, finds Dragonball firmly ensconced in first place with more than twice as many searches as second place finisher Britney Spears.

The early word from those who have seen The Fellowship of the Ring, the 3-hour first installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is very positive.

Major assets of long-time RPG producer Iron Crown Enterprise (ICE, to its friends) have been purchased out of bankruptcy and the company is going to be revived.

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings -- A Strategy Battle Game , is a trade paperback published by Games Workshop U.K. and distributed to the book trade by Simon & Schuster.

Variety reported today that New Line Cinema, a division of AOL/ Time/Warner, is set to create both live action and animated feature length films based on the Cartoon Network's Samurai Jack series.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone broke four box office records with its opening this weekend at $93.5 million.

The independent pop culture retailers contacted by ICv2 are nearly unanimous in their conviction that the The Fellowship of the Ring ( the first film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy), which debuts in December, is the best fit for the tastes and interests of their customers.

Decipher has announced its strategy for the Lord of the Rings roleplaying game, and it's trying to make the most of this powerful license by first offering a game appropriate for neophyte gamers, and offering an RPG for the hardcore gamers a couple of months later.

Serious USA, Inc.--the US arm of Serious Global, Ltd. of England -- is launching its CD Cardz in the US.