'Martian' again No. 1, 'Pan' peters out

"PAN," the unnecessary retelling of Peter Pan, which cost an estimated $150 million to produce, earned $15.5 million in its opening weekend, according to Rentrak estimates yesterday.

That is not a good number.

Early tracking did not look promising for the Joe Wright-directed film but still predicted that "Pan" would open at least in the $20 million range.

Tracking, however, was done by the same group that said that 1.5 million would come here to see the pope.

The high-wire spectacle "The Walk" also stumbled in its first weekend in wide release, after debuting on IMAX screens last week. The tale of Philippe Petit's tightrope walk between the towers of the World Trade Center earned $3.7 million this weekend, bringing its total to $6.4 million. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in the film directed by Robert Zemeckis.

One thing going against that well-crafted movie: nausea. The effects are so realistic and dizzying, it's as if you're actually up there on the wire.

But not everyone was seeing red at the box office. Some were seeing red planet. Ridley Scott's "The Martian" earned $37 million in its second week, nabbing the top spot again. Its domestic total now stands at $108.7 million.

"Hotel Transylvania 2" took second place in its third weekend with $20.3 million, bumping its total to $116.8 million. "Pan" came in at No. 3. Nancy Meyers' workplace comedy "The Intern" earned $8.7 million, and the border thriller "Sicario" brought in $7.4 million, rounding out the top five.

Outside the top 10, "Steve Jobs" opened in four theaters in NYC and L.A. to a powerful $520,942. Its $130,000 per-theater average ranks as the best of the year.

People

magazine reports that the rapper

Scarface

(a/k/a Brad Jordan) was in Atlanta on Saturday to receive the "I Am Hip Hop" career-achievement award at the 2015 BET Hip Hop Awards.

After Scarface walked off the stage, he was booked into an Atlanta jail on child-support contempt charges.

"It's definitely an honor," Scarface told the Associated Press before the show, referring to the award, not the arrest. "I've learned from the best. I've had the best teachers in the game."

In October 2010, the Houston native also was jailed in Texas for failing to pay child support. He was released in 2011.

*

Queen Latifah

,

Smokey Robinson

and

Trombone Shorty

are among the performers who will help celebrate the arts at the White House on Wednesday.

They will be joined by Usher, James Taylor, Audra McDonald and others for a PBS special hosted by President Obama and his wife, Michelle. The event will mark the 50th anniversary of legislation that created the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Carol Burnett is scheduled to perform special readings.

The latest installment of the "In Performance at the White House" will be broadcast in January on PBS.

Mrs. Obama plans a student workshop with Robinson, Keb' Mo', MC Lyte, Esperanza Spalding and others before the evening performance.

* Aerosmith has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Donald Trump demanding that the presidential candidate stop using "Dream On" at his rallies.

Trump also was warned against using "Dream On" in August, but let's face it, the pesky legal system is for losers. This time Aerosmith's reps are giving the Donald a 24-hour window to comply.

The tone of the legal letter was very different from the one Michael Stipe wrote after Trump started to use R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)."

"Go f--- yourselves, the lot of you - you sad, attention-grabbing, power-hungry little men," Stipe wrote on bassist Mike Mills' Twitter page, according to Rolling Stone. "Do not use our music or my voice for your moronic charade of a campaign."

Neil Young also took use of "Rockin' in the Free World" away from candidate Trump and gave it to candidate Bernie Sanders.

* Nicki Minaj appeared with the Weeknd on "Saturday Night Live" in an outfit that left very little to the Minajination.

* Giving new meaning to Wiz Khalifa's hit "Black and Yellow," Pittsburgh police say that the rapper (a/k/a Cameron Jibril Thomaz) was cited for urinating in public about 2:30 a.m. Saturday behind a bar called The Flats on Pittsburgh's South Side.

Wiz, who keeps a house in the Pittsburgh suburbs, was in town to perform at Pitt's Midnight Madness basketball season kickoff Friday night.

Wiz's peeps had no comment, but next time they hope he leaks new music.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

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