There are five new wide releases this weekend, along with a notable expansion, but this three-day is certain to "go to the dogs." Beverly Hills Chihuahua (Disney), starring Piper Perabo and Jamie Lee Curtis and featuring the voice talent of everyone from Drew Barrymore to George Lopez to Placido Domingo, is tracking through the roof, and it is a surefire box office winner.

Chihuahua is the first of four likely blockbusters from Disney set for release in the fourth quarter. The House That Mickey Built will also be scoring big with High School Musical 3: Senior Year on Oct. 24; followed by the animated 3D doggie comedy Bolt, arriving on the Friday before Thanksgiving; and the Adam Sandler family adventure film Bedtime Stories, coming on Christmas Day. It would not be surprising for this to become a quartet of $100 million grossing pictures.

Hello once again, and welcome back to Bard's Eye View, the place to come for the best ways to translate the hype, the buzz, the rumor and the speculation and turn it into Ultimate Movie Moguls and Box Office Moguls victory. It's not always an easy translation. Some films make a great-two minute trailer but not much else, and others can't even begin to know just how big an impact they'll have on moviegoers everywhere. I am here, however, as always, to use my secret decoder ring for your benefit. (Wink.)

"I'm not impressed with Hollywood in general. They don't make a lot of movies that lift our standards and morality." That's what director Alex Kendrick told me in a telephone interview on Monday after his new movie Fireproof (IDP Films/Samuel Goldwyn) generated a downright shocking $6.5 million opening weekend. Los Angeles and New York are filled with talented film professionals, who spend countless hours and millions upon millions of dollars making movies. The cost of development, production, a director, actors and marketing make the craft of filmmaking prohibitive. So how did a little church in Georgia score the fourth-best gross of the just-completed weekend?

Steve Mason is now on Facebook.

SUNDAY 9:30 a.m. (Pacific): Shia LaBeouf is lucky and good. He's become a budding superstar with the help of $300 million blockbusters Transformers and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull but his career has been on the make for a while. He grew up in the business gaining traction in the Disney Channel series Even Stevens and ramped up his career with roles in the family film Holes ($16.3 million opening, $67.4 million cume) and the critically-acclaimed indies A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and Bobby. Then he demonstrated his real appeal in last year's commercial breakthrough Disturbia, directed by D.J. Caruso. Now his reteaming with Caruso, Eagle Eye (DreamWorks/Paramount) has scored even bigger.

Greetings, Moguls! This week I'm discussing PTA, and also giving you my best Shia LaBeouf impersonation. Not that I'm going to all of a sudden act in a bunch of $300 million blockbusters, but remember that part in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull where the hat blows into his hands and he begins to put it on before Indy reclaims it with a wink? As though he was saying, "Yeah right, kid, this is my department." I kind of feel that way about writing a column exclusively about winter films with PTA potential, most of which are arthouse offerings — after all, that department is the specialty of a slightly different Indie Jones. But hey, Shia LaBeouf at least did SOME things right as Indy's sidekick — and this examination of what I call the PTA problem will be no different. Now if only we can get Steven Spielberg to put Indie and I in his next blockbuster ... heck, if Facebook gets its own movie, why not Fantasy Moguls?

"A real movie." That's the phrase that one of my industry sources used to describe Eagle Eye (DreamWorks/Paramount), which debuts this Friday at 3,500 or so locations and on more than 4,500 screens. The movie reunites Hollywood's hottest young star, Shia LaBeouf, with his director from the surprise hit Disturbia, D.J. Caruso, and industry tracking is pointing toward a spectacular opening.

It is very hard to bet against LaBeouf, whose last two movies, Transformers and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, have grossed a combined $635 million domestic and $1.5 billion worldwide. Prior to those sure-fire blockbusters came Disturbia, a nifty little Hitchcockian genre pic released last spring that demonstrates the 22-year-old actor's personal charm. He's the classic everyman and, while some compared his performance to Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window, I agree with New York Daily News critic Elizabeth Weitzman, who wrote that LaBeouf is "more John Cusack than Jimmy Stewart."

The fall film season is in full swing these days, with the successful limited launches of The Duchess and Appaloosa, both of which collected strong PTA numbers (unfortunately reducing Towelhead to scraps after only one week). With the number of serious pretenders to PTA crowns among the weeks of autumn, we shall not be surprised by such turnovers, as there will only be a few chosen ones at the end of the season that were true arthouse goldmines at the box office, in the shadow of the bigger prestigious films produced by Hollywood. Among last year's champs were Into the Wild, The Darjeeling Limited, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Persepolis.

Greetings fellow Fantaversians, and welcome back to Bard's Eye View, the place to come for planning the best strategy for your fall and winter Fantasy Moguls leagues. It seems like only a week ago that the September leagues began ... but would you believe that we are only a week or so away from the October leagues? This is especially significant, as it marks the very last season to be contained entirely within 2008, a season that will also mark the final round of the very first year of Super Leagues. Time to pick the very VERY best slate you can, those who survive ...

Steve Mason is now on Facebook.

FRIDAY 9:30 a.m. (Pacific): Samuel L. Jackson has opened at the top of the box office for a second time in 2008. His racially-charged, crooked-cop flick Lakeview Terrace (Sony) is the new No. 1 movie in America, as I first reported Friday night, with a $15.6 million opening. The movie clearly "clicked" with audiences, surging almost 26 percent on Saturday from Friday's $5.1 million opening day, and Sony is anticipating $3.92 million today. The three-day for Terrace is about 15 percent higher than the $13.5 million that I projected Friday night. Jackson opened much bigger at No. 1 back in February with Jumper ($27.3 million), and Lakeview Terrace represents only the all-time 13th-best opening for him, about on par with 2000's Rules of Engagement ($15 million).

The upcoming three-day will be much easier to call than last weekend's photo finish between Burn After Reading (Focus), Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys (Lionsgate) and Righteous Kill (Overture). The near-certain winner, according to industry tracking and conversations with multiple sources, will be Neil LaBute's Lakeview Terrace (Sony).

Early reviews for Terrace are decidedly negative with just a 42 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but the presence of Samuel L. Jackson on the marquee will give this genre pic the boost it needs to win. I am projecting $15 million or so for the frame, which would put it on par with Jackson's all-time 12th-best opening, 2000’s Rules of Engagement ($15 million). It will, however, easily mark the biggest opening of LaBute's film career.