Geographical Region: All

With THE MEXICAN retaining the top spot and the live-action thriller 15 MINUTES debuting in second, Warner Bros.' SEE SPOT RUN held steady in third, grossing US$6.61 million. The feces-joke ridden family film has scooped up $17.98 million so far. HANNIBAL fell from second to fourth with a gross of $5.85 million. The hog-wild horror flick, with primary visual effects by Mill Film, has dined on $151.5 million thus far. Slipping two slots to finish seventh, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON drummed up another $4.26 million. The highest grossing foreign language film in U.S.

Big Idea Productions has announced that production has started on their first theatrical release, JONAH: A VEGGIETALES MOVIE. The CGI-animated film is slated to hit theaters in 2002. Big Idea's direct-to-video series VEGGIETALES has sold more than 20 million units to date. The film will be a humorous retelling of the Bible story of Jonah and the whale. Currently, Big Idea is searching for a distribution partner. A sneak peek of the feature will be previewed on the March 27 video release, LYLE, THE KINDLY VIKING.

Many citizens in the Czech Republic are aghast over the premiere of POKEMON on the public TV network, Slovak TV. The Slovak media council has complained that the show has a negative psychological effect on children due to its level of violence. Because the station is a public broadcaster, the council has the right to ban the program. If done, this move could destroy Slovak TV. The station is currently in dire financial straits, owing over a million dollars to various companies for purchases made over the past three years.

* Wednesday, March 14 and Wednesday, March 21, 2001. Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

Saturday, April 14, 2001. Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Saturday, April 21, 2001. Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

* Sunday, February 25 Sunday, April 1, 2001. New York, New York, U.S.A.

* Tuesday, March 13 Wednesday, March 14, 2001. San Francisco, California, U.S.A.

* Wednesday, March 14, 2001. Hollywood, California, U.S.A.

Nickelodeon has promoted senior VP Andra Shapiro to executive VP of business affairs and general counsel. Shapiro will head all business and legal affairs for Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, TV Land, TNN: The National Network, Nickelodeon Games & Sports and Noggin. Before joining MTV Networks, she was an attorney at New York law firm Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, where she handled copyright and trademark issues.

Visual effects/live-action director Simon D. Holden has signed with The Flux Group, a motion graphics, visual effects and live-action production house. Holden will focus on commercial work for Flux. His previous commercial work includes spots for Dodge, Pontiac, Bally Total Fitness and Warner Bros. Home Video. Recently, Holden has done F/X work on film and TV projects such as MOULIN ROUGE, CONTACT, DANTE'S PEAK, FACE/OFF, THE X-FILES and STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE. Flux president Maggie Magee said, "Simon is an exceptional effects director and supervisor.

Wild Brain has finished spots for Jolly Ranchers new gel snack product, "Fruitensity." The 15 and 30-second ads were directed by Wild Brains Julia Tortolani and conceptualized by ad agency Euro RSCG Tatham. "Fruitensity" features bold colors and a combination of live-action and photo-collage. Tortolanis collage art animation was created using a mix of still photography, full-motion film and a broad array of digital tools including Maya, Photoshop and After Effects.