The Morning Fix: ‘Karate Kid’ kicks ‘A-Team.’ Cablevision puts on cowboy hat. E3 invades L.A.

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After the coffee. Before signing off on a sequel to the remake of ‘Karate Kid.’ Yes, it’s come to that.

‘Karate Kid’ kicks you-know-what at box office. In the battle of 1980s remakes, the new version of ‘The Karate Kid’ easily beat the movie version of ‘The A-Team.’ Sony’s remake with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan took in $56 million, while 20th Century Fox’s ‘The A-Team’ managed only $26 million. Box office analysis from the Los Angeles Times, Hot Blog and Deadline Hollywood. Meanwhile, the New York Times weighs in with a piece about how much the movie industry has riding on Disney’s ‘Toy Story 3.’ That led blogger Dave Poland to rip the piece as ‘destructive’ and inaccurate.’

Cablevision heads to Marlboro Country. New York-based cable operator Cablevision Systems, which primarily serves New York City and Long Island is striking a deal to buy Bresnan Communications for $1.365 billion from Providence Equity. This is a big expansion for Cablevision, which also owns the cable programming company Rainbow (AMC, IFC and We) and the New York Knicks and Rangers. Bresnan has systems in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Utah serving 300,000 subscribers. More on the deal from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, which noted Cablevision’s recent track record on acquisitions hasn’t been so hot lately.

E3 is here! E3 is here! Gamers will be descending on downtown Los Angeles for E3, the annual video-game conference that will draw almost 50,000 attendees. If you missed it, here’s Sunday’s Los Angeles Times profile of Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, who has built a video-game empire but also alienated much of the creative community. As for the idea that all gamers are teenagers locked away in the basement, reality is they are 34-year-olds locked in the basement. Variety reports on the Entertainment Software Association’s latest industry survey on gamers.

Could they be back? The New York Post says Harvey and Bob Weinstein are prepping yet another attempt to buy Miramax back from the Walt Disney Co. Currently, Disney is in negotiations with David Bergstein and Ron Tutor. Now the Post never met a rumor it couldn’t hype into a story, and if you throw enough stuff at a wall sooner or later something sticks. Of course, the Weinstein Co. will no doubt try again to get Miramax back, so the real story is whether Disney will entertain talking to them again if the Bergstein/Tutor talks fall through.

MTV gets new script. Last week, MTV premiered its new high school comedy ‘The Hard Times of R.J. Berger,’ which can probably best be described as ‘Revenge of the Nerds’ meets HBO’s ‘Hung.’ This is just one of many new scripted shows the network is trying. Hopefully, we’ll get a break from all the variations of ‘The Hills’ if some work. The Wall Street Journal looks at MTV’s latest effort at reinvention. And if this sounds familiar, it’s because the Los Angeles Times looked at MTV’s new script for success back in in January.

Inside the Los Angeles Times: ‘Memphis’ and ‘Red’ are the big winners at the Tony Awards. Patrick Goldstein on the sure-to-be-controversial movie ‘Unthinkable.’

-- Joe Flint

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