“Box” on The Daily Caller

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hair has won out over Harry Potter at the weekend box office. (more)

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Manny Pacquiao was more concerned with the set list for his upcoming concert than he was with Floyd Mayweather Jr. The fight every boxing fan wants to see may never happen, but Pacquiao had a firm date to sing at Lake Tahoe before heading home and taking up his more formal duties as a congressman in the Philippines. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Will Ferrell’s plot to take over the weekend box office has succeeded. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Johnny Knoxville and his “Jackass” gang are even bigger hits in three dimensions. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Town” is the talk of the box office, opening with $23.8 million to take the No. 1 spot. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Leonardo DiCaprio’s thriller “Inception” held on to the top berth at the weekend box office with $42.9 million, while Angelina Jolie’s spy caper “Salt” debuted a solid No. 2 with $36 million. (more)

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Manny Pacquiao will return to the ring in November, that much is certain. Who the opponent will be is still very much undecided. (more)

SAN MIGUEL, Philippines (AP) — The pounding beat of “Eye of the Tiger” from “Rocky III” blasted from speakers as Manny Pacquiao’s black Hummer pulled up at an open-air basketball court on a recent humid evening. (more)

NEW YORK (AP) — Polish boxer Tomasz Adamek is dedicating his fight against Cristobal Arreola this month to those killed in the plane crash in Russia. (more)

LAS VEGAS (AP) — An expert in deadly animals is planning to stay for 10 days inside a box full of snakes at a Las Vegas Strip casino as part of a reality television show. (more)

The stock market closed higher, following the lead of financial stocks as the heads of several big banks testified before Congress about the financial crisis. Stocks fluctuated early Wednesday but strengthened as the questioning of bank officials proceeded with little in the way of confrontation. Industries seen as safer in a weak economy, like health care and utilities, posted some of the biggest gains. (more)

Hopes that global manufacturing activity is heating up lifted industrial stocks Monday ahead of an earnings report from Alcoa Inc. After the closing bell, Alcoa posted revenue that topped expectations, but profits excluding one-time costs fell short of forecasts. The report from the nation’s largest aluminum producer gave traders one of the first looks at how companies fared in the final quarter of 2009. (more)

Manny Pacquiao will fight March 13 at Cowboys Stadium, but it won’t be against Floyd Mayweather Jr. (more)

A disappointing jobs report couldn’t stop the stock market from having a strong start to the new year. Stocks zigzagged for much of Friday but closed higher as investors took in stride the Labor Department’s news that employers cut 85,000 jobs in December, far more than the 8,000 analysts expected. The disappointing numbers were offset by a pleasant surprise: November’s report was revised to show the first job gains in nearly two years. (more)

HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese box office revenue surged 44 percent to 6.2 billion yuan ($908 million) in 2009, a movie publicist said Friday. (more)

Cautious optimism about the job market gave stocks a modest lift Thursday, one day before the government’s report on December employment. Stocks closed mostly higher after many retailers issued upbeat holiday sales figures and the Labor Department reported a leveling of the number of newly laid-off workers applying for unemployment benefits. (more)

Manny Pacquiao’s promoters say his prospective bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr. is dead after a mediation session failed to resolve the fighters’ differences, scrapping what was likely to be the richest fight in boxing history. (more)

NAME — Christopher Dodd. (more)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Representatives for Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. wrapped up a lengthy mediation session Tuesday night with no word on any progress on the drug-testing issues endangering the boxers’ prospective March 13 bout. (more)