Until this weekend, Hollywood's code of honor has been revolved around an iron commandment: We do not release more than one horror film per weekend. And thus, since the days of Chaplin and Pickford, no third-tier, shamelessly exploitative attempt to ring dollars out of the pockets of gullible teenagers looking for cheap screams has had to compete on its opening weekend with any other third tier, shamelessly exploitative attempt to ring dollars out of the pockets of gullible teenagers looking for cheap screams.

And thus has Hollywood grown and flourished, its blessings divided equally for its rulers to rejoice.

The opening weekend for these films is especially important as once word gets out of what a low-rent, awful-not-in-a-good-way, tedious march through hell these movies are, their grosses typically fall off something in the range of 99.99999 percent in their second weekends.

So although Final Desitination hauled in $23.3 million for Warner Brothers this weekend and Halloween 2 brought Papas Weinstein a nothing-to-sneeze at $17.4 million, the pure tragic dilemma Hollywood is pondering is: why couldn't Halloween have moved to another weekend (say one closer to, uh, Halloween), letting Final Desitination sop up the entire horror shopping dollar of a combined 40.7 this weekend, and then gotten its own 40 millionish some other week?

The scuttlebutt around town is that Halloween had been booked for this weekend when Final Desitination nosed its way onto this precious late summer patch of sand. So, people ask, facing up to that showdown, why couldn't the Weinsteins see what was clear to the entire world and its grandmother: that Final Desitination was clearly the stronger of the two low-rent exploitation franchises (it's even, as the title suggests, in 3-D), and seeing that, why couldn't they swallow their scheduling pride and get the fuck out of the way?

As with many things Weinsteins, we can glean motives only through a glass darkly, but a few hypotheses have surfaced about why this tragedy had to happen:

• Moving the release date was prohibitively costly.
• There was a belief that FD3-D skews female and H2 skews male so there is room for both.
• This was the Weinstein's first window after the Inglorious Basterds release and thus their chance post-Basterds to get Halloween out during the summer months.
• With their flurry of deals that they are getting into and out of, they may have needed to release Halloween by a certain, because perhaps of some expiring treaty.
• They couldn't swallow their pride because they can't swallow their pride. That's why they they call them Weinsteins after all.

Whatever the true reason, one horror scenario is going to haunt the dreams of Hollywood executives until the end of their days; when studio chiefs go to sleep at night it will be the face of those lost millions looming before them, along with the eternally unknowable specter of what could have been.

After the jump: What lesbianwashing network is now playing God with its schedule?

· CBS's Monday night comedy block won the night, including a series-best for The Big Bang Theory, which we're glad to know is 10.0 million people's dirty little secret as well. [Variety]
· ABC is futzing with its schedule, putting Private Practice after Grey's Anatomy, and Life on Mars after Lost, in what they'll multi-platform promote as their new, "Let's Hope You Stick Around For Suckier TV Night in America!" campaign.

• Weinstein Co. Expects Deal With Writers [AP]
• Previously: United Artists Mogul Tom Cruise Reportedly Buried Under Mountain Of Thousands Of Scripts

· Hollywood Out of Ideas, Chewing Your Own Cenobite Cud Edition: Clive Barker will produce a remake of his 1987 horror flick Hellraiser for Dimension. [Variety]
· Chuck's numbers go up 19 percent from last week's airing, while enough Dancing with the Stars fans stick around to watch an amnesiac Christina Applegate to provide Samantha Who with a "strong" series debut. [THR]
· Madonna signs away her musical life to Live Nation, which is betting that the artist still has a few highly profitable, perfectly calculated provocations left in her. [Variety]

He said he also planned to position Ms. Blanchett, who plays Mr. Dylan during his "Blonde on Blonde" phase, for an Oscar. (Mr. Bale corresponds to "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan," Mr. Ledger to "John Wesley Harding.")

"I may be jumping the gun," Mr. Weinstein said, "but if Cate Blanchett doesn't get nominated, I'll shoot myself."

Blanchett probably shouldn't take this dramatic declaration of loyalty too literally; after all, once Gwyneth Patlrow failed to earn a nomination for Proof, he somehow found the emotional fortitude to remove the shotgun barrel from his mouth, opting to live and fight Academy members another day. Still, maybe he really means it this time: if Weinstein can't get a former Oscar winner a shot at another trophy by stunt-casting her as one of the most beloved male musicians of a generation, perhaps a self-inflicted gunshot wound would be preferable to admitting he's lost his touch.

[Photo: Weinstein Co via NYT]

• Dylan Movie to Open Like a Rolling Premiere [NY Times]
• Previously: Harvey Weinstein All Broken Up Over 'Proof' Snub [Defamer]

The film exec also sent a big kiss to Moore's agent, Ari Emanuel, "my lover." Apologizing to his girlfriend, Georgina Chapman, Weinstein joked, "I'm coming out tonight," and went on to thank Emanuel for blasting Michael Eisner when the former Disney chief tried to unload Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11."

"Jeremy Piven plays Ari on ['Entourage']," said Weinstein, "but Jeremy doesn't have Ari's testosterone."

Weinstein was, of course, just kidding, but we find his love note to Emanuel touching nonetheless. Harvey was undoubtedly aware that another gossip column in the very same newspaper recently tried to destroy his good friend's reputation with anonymous accusations that the Entourage phenomenon had "mellowed" Emanuel, and was trying to help out his agent buddy salvage his image by stressing he can still out-douche his fictional counterpart whenever he likes.

• In Moore's 'Sicko,' Hillary gets some shots (second item) [Rush and Molloy]
• Previously: Former, Soon-to-Be-Killed Endeavor Staffer: 'Entourage' Has Made Ari Emanuel Less Douchey [Defamer]

"First of all, I'm incredibly disappointed. We tried to do something new and obviously we didn't do it that well," Harvey told me today. "It's just a question of how is it going to hang in there. But we could split the movies in a couple of weeks. Make Tarantino's a full-length film, and Rodriguez's too. We'll be adding those 'two missing reels' that's talked about in the movie. [...]

"Our research showed the length kept people away. It was the single biggest deterrent. It was 3 hours and 12 minutes long. We originally intended to get it all in in 2 hours, 30 minutes. That would have been a better time. But the movies ran longer, the [fake] trailers ran longer, everything ran longer," Harvey told me. [...]

Weinstein admits that he thought the film would do much better than it did and sees the failure of Grindhouse's U.S. release as a rap on his reputation for movie savvy. He can't blame the directors. After all, he is closely tied to Tarantino and Rodriquez personally and professionally and, what's more, he and brother Bob made that relationship and Grindhouse a cornerstone of their fledgling company's financing. (No doubt, that's why Harvey, who has a long history of imposing his iron will on filmmakers, gave the two directors a pass when it came to Grindhouse's extreme length.) [...]

Harvey admitted to me that his attention may have been too diverted from the movie biz as a result [of his company's diversification]. "This Cannes, I'm going to change all that. I'm back to being me. We wanted to diversify immediately. Now I have to go back to being Harvey."

There is, however, good news for those unnerved by a second-guessing Weinstein, as he quickly built to a more characteristically confident stance, adding, "You know what? I don't care how much I love the guy, if Quentin turns in a Death Proof cut for the Cannes screening that's a second over 90 minutes, I will tear the extra frames out of the fucking projector with my bare hands and then strangle the projectionist, just for kicks. I'm back, baby!"

• EXCLUSIVE: Harvey Very Disappointed; May Re-Release 'Grindhouse' As 2 Pics [DHD]
• Previously: Monday Morning Box Office: Maybe Rose McGowan Needed Two Machine-Gun Legs? [Defamer]

· She's right, you know: If you're looking for the number 24 everywhere, you're going to find it everywhere.
· All that is required for the triumph of neglectful-pop-star-parent-evil is that good nannies be silent.
· Banging Harvey Weinstein has absolutely nothing to do with Marchesa's Georgina Chapman getting her designs onto the bodies of Oscar nominees who may want to work with Weinstein in the future.
· If Chinese Theatre Spider-Man's Oscar picks weren't your thing, how about some by a creepy ventriloquist's dummy?
· And speaking of the Chinese Theatre characters, the Chewbacca headbutt comes right at about the two minute mark on this one.
· Katie Holmes: Vagina Warrior. We'll leave it up to you to figure out on your own what horrors might lurk at that link's destination.

Police in Tempe, Ariz., said 23-year-old Tiffany Sutton allegedly tricked her 43-year-old victim with an offer of kinky sex.

But, after tying him up, police said, she pulled out a knife and cut the man on the leg. She then told him she likes to drink blood and proceeded to drink from his leg, officials said.

Sutton allegedly also made several cuts to the victim's upper body.

The victim managed to break free from his restraints and run from the bedroom. The woman then chased him with a pickax, police said.

The subject matter's probably a little too dark for the CBS MOW treatment (and Lifetime would ruin it by framing her bloodlust as some kind of exotic eating disorder), but seems perfectly tailored for studios that churn out low-budget horror, like a Lionsgate or the Weinstein Co., which has recently proven its its willingness to push holiday-exploiting product. And since it's never too early to worry about casting, agents for affordable, crazy-friendly talent like Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci (or anyone who's been memorably offed in a Final Destination movie, if those two are busy) might want to start working the phones in case someone preemptively options the story.

• Woman Allegedly Ties Up Valentine, Drinks His Blood [NBC5i.com via BoingBoing]

The "Grace" deal went into after-hours negotiations, with the Weinstein Co. clinching it because of its passion for the project, said sources close to the film. Harvey Weinstein, reverting to his old Sundance strategies, didn't leave the negotiating table from 9 p.m. until 4:30 a.m. "The company got its groove back last night," an ebullient Weinstein said. "I'm happy to be back in this game. Fuck it. I'm good at this. It's fun."

If Weinstein sounds a little self-satisfied with his acquisition, it's only because he initially feared that he might have been a little out of practice in implementing his once-legendary Sundance strategies; any seeming braggadocio is merely relief that his rivals from Fox Searchlight and Sony Pictures Classics lacked the desire to chew through their limbs to escape the well-concealed bear traps he'd planted in their condos, then suddenly show up at the marathon Grace session with new bids that might trump his own.

• Sundance starts on cool note [THR via Wiretap]

Shame, shame, shame on Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and their distributor MGM's Harry Sloan, for opening a holiday-themed slasher movie on Christmas Day. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the ads and release date for Black Christmas from Dimension/MGM. The promos even make fun of "people who express outrage" as well as the plot's body count. And the entertainment industry wonders why it continues to have a huge PR problem as promoters of garbage? Showbiz marketing calls this counter-programming.

Still, I don't understand: just how many disturbed human beings does The Weinstein Company and MGM think actually want to go see a gory movie on December 25th — specifically, a remake of a 1974 horror flick in which a college sorority house is terrorized by a psycho who makes frightening phone calls and murders the girls during the holiday break. Is the intended audience supposed to be non-Christians?

Should the Weinsteins fail in their clear mission to destroy Christmas this time, we fear that they'll redouble their efforts next year, partnering with New Line to reimagine this year's earnest, Christian-positive flop The Nativity Story as a slasher flick about the newborn Baby Jesus going on a murderous rampage through Bethlehem, a counterprogramming attack sure to finish the job started by Black Christmas.

• Weinsteins & MGM To Release Xmas Crap [Deadline Hollywood]

Our friends over at the Franklin Avenue blog have documented the entrants in the pumpkin carving competition between the tenants of the Wilshire Courtyard office complex, where Variety, E!, the Weinstein Co., and various other entertainment-related concerns are housed. We're a little disappointed that the Weinstein minions passed on a great opportunity to carve their bosses' likenesses into twin Harvey and Bob pumpkins, but understand how sensible self- and job-preservation instincts (a grisly employee-carving competition would surely follow such an entry) led them down a safer path. Our personal favorite is the one shown here, the offering of E! International given the intentionally misleading name of "Sick of Corporate America," but which is quite obviously their attempt to commemorate the reverse-peristaltic majesty of the network's triumphant, globetrotting collaboration with Tara Reid.

Truth be told, though, we still think our Brian Grazer pumpkin from last Halloween, if eligible (or real, but whatever), would top them all.

• It's The Great Pumpkin That Looks Like Janet Jackson's Boob, Charlie Brown [Franklin Avenue]