News Corp.'s (NASDAQ: NWS) new computer cartoon, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, had a strong domestic debut this past Wednesday. It opened with $13.8 million on that day, which represents a record-breaking performance for an animated feature released in the middle of the week. Now, just recently, I mentioned how I hate it when Hollywood promotes the breaking of a record. It tends to be very qualified. This situation is no different. Still, I'll give credit where credit is due. Dinosaurs is doing well so far.

We'll have to see how the weekend ultimately treats the new feature. The competition is stiff. It's the July 4th holiday, and Viacom (NYSE: VIA) is out there with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Thankfully, News Corp. won't have too much to worry about from Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Pixar cartoon Up. As can be seen by a Boxofficemojo chart, the excitement surrounding Up has faded. News Corp. was naturally counting on this to happen by this point in time.

Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) has an interesting weekend coming up. The new Pixar film, Wall-E, opened today. While everyone expects it to be a hit, no one knows yet how big a hit it will ultimately be.

Pixar, of course, is a major brand in computer-generated cartoons. Its major competition is DreamWorks Animation (NYSE: DWA). The latter's most recent hit, Kung Fu Panda, opened earlier this summer box-office season with a $60.2 million first-weekend take, according to Boxofficemojo. Last year, Ratatouille debuted with a first-weekend take of $47 million. In my mind, for Wall-E to please shareholders and show Disney that its Pixar brand is a reliable money machine, the animated feature needs to do at least $60 million. It can't do anywhere near the Ratatouille flick since that was an example of weak opening performance, in my opinion.

I read a great review on Wall-E at the Hollywood Reporter. The author heaps praises on the film and says that Pixar's streak of success is intact. That's pretty pleasing. Yet, the review also worries me to some extent (I'm a Disney shareholder). The author says that there isn't a lot of dialogue in the picture (I guess the robot characters don't speak) and that it might be such a smart project that some moviegoers might not fully appreciate it. In this competitive timeframe, that doesn't make me feel good. I'd rather the film be simple blockbuster material for the popcorn crowd. I don't want the young kids in the audience to feel their attention spans being strained in the least. I'm not looking for art in this case. I just want my company to make as much money as possible.

Apparently not everyone is as unsettled as I am by the story of a rodent cooking meals at a restaurant, his grubby little hands all over the oregano. The cartoon Ratatouille claimed the top spot in the North American box office this week, selling $47.2 million in tickets.

While Entertainment Weekly noted that the unlikely pairing of the feel-good family film with the fourth installment of the Die Hard series was "just the right ingredients to bring the box office back to life," CNNMoney.com reports that Ratatouille's opening was "the lowest ... for a Pixar movie in nine years." The film's receipts failed to live up to expectations, which were in the $50 million to $65 million range ahead of the opening weekend.

Pixar -- A ground-breaking animation company founded by Steve Jobs, was acquired by The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) last year for $7.4 billion. It has released eight full-length animated feature films, beginning with Toy Story in 1995. The studio's previous release, Cars, banked $60.1 million in its opening weekend a year ago, earning $244 million domestically by the end of its run.

Yesterday we learned that Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) is taking another shot at the movie promotion business by pushing (for a cut of the action) the National Geographic movie "Arctic Tale." Starbuck's initial effort, last year's "Akeela and the Bee," had indifferent results.

While most of the big releases for 2007 already have commercial tie-ins, I thought about other companies that might make money by offering some targeted marketing. Perhaps

• Ratatouille -- KFC (Yum Brands, NYSE: YUM)
• The 40-year old Virgin -- Weight Watchers Intl (NYSE: WTW)
• Sicko -- The Church of Scientology
• Live Free or Die Hard -- Viagra (Pfizer, NYSE: PFE)
• Evan Almighty -- Chris Craft
• Transformers: The Mitt Romney Campaign
• The Simpsons Movie: Sylvan Learning
• Hairspray: Lane Bryant (Charming Shoppes, Inc., NASDAQ: CHRS)
• Hostel: Part II -- Hilton Hotels (NYSE: HLT)
• 1408 -- Hostelling International

And, as a special subscriber gift offer promotion,

• The Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones, NYSE: DJ) -- Citizen Kane