No doubt a lot of “Jackass”-generated cash for Paramount — a new record for this time period, though with constant inflation of movie tickets, even in a stagnant economy, I’m never too impressed by these constantly broken records — comes directly from the 3D bump. It seems clear that the format can still make a big difference for the right movie, and this is obviously a special case. Regular readers know I was born without the gene that makes people enjoy the feeling of being grossed out, but even I get that if seeing something, or someone, squirt out of an orifice in 2D is hilarious, then watching it/him practically fly into your lap in 3D must be completely hysterical. The only fly in the stinky ointment here is that inevitable R-rating. I can only imagine how many younger, mostly male, teenagers and tweens are trying to figure out how they can scam their way into a theater (and the correct glasses) or begging older relatives and/or paying neighborhood winos to take them.

Meanwhile, the cleverly conceived idea of having older actors do what younger actors usually do has proven itself with “RED.” Like “The Expendables” with Oscar winners, the PG-13 action comedy is “tracking” in all of those “quadrants” Hollywood people like to talk about according to Nikki Finke. Not “Jackass” well, but $22 million estimated.

Since the film is tracking best, according to La Finke, with over-30 males, who may take longer to see the movie, it’s reasonable to assume that this week’s #2 film will continue to make money for some time. She also notes that, while the film has a $58 million budget, Summit paid less than $20 million of it, sharing the costs/profits with overseas distributors. That’s good because they’ve already made all their money back, sans marketing costs. On the other hand, I have a feeling “RED” will be very profitable worldwide. A long time ago I worked in a foreign film sales office and the two things we were told the international audience wanted was a strong, simple story and big stars. Action was good, too. Finke mentions that, even though “RED” is based on DC comic book, they’re parent company of Warner Brothers turned down the film, perhaps based on the assumption that a movie dominated with one fifty-something superstar and a bunch of septuagenarian and sexagenarian near superstars couldn’t possibly do well. Big mistake

It’s also worth noting that both of this week’s new movies got decent-to-good reviews. Of course, in the case of “Jackass 3D,” us non-gross-out friendly types have learned to stay away by now. I also have to admit that even I, however, note the presence in the cast of ex-skateboarder and sometime performer Spike Jonze, who in his other life is one of the best film directors around. If I only enjoyed watching people eating things that people should never, ever eat.

In the third and fourth spots, both “The Social Network” and “Secretariat” are holding extremely well. The Aaron Sorkin/David Fincher Facebook flick dropped only by 28.8% in its third weekend for an estimated $11 million. The Randall Wallace-directed tale of a very talented horse rebounded a bit from its unspectacular opening by dropping only a minimal 25% for an estimated gross of just over $9.5 million.

Among limited releases, not at all surprisingly, “Hereafter” did extremely well. Considering that the movie is the second pairing of actor Matt Damon and director Clint Eastwood, it’s a bit of a big-fish/small pond situation with the film easily getting the week’s best per-screen average — $38,500 — for a total of 231,000 in six theaters.

At the other end of the scale, the subject of my Thursday rant, ex-secret Tea Partier Ray Griggs’ “I Want Your Money” didn’t get very much of your money. It also likely won’t be having a major influence on the congressional election, nor will do a whole lot for the career of Griggs’ — who does a Michael Moore-style on-camera turn in the film. In 537 theaters, the anti-Obama documentary dealing with the issue of the deficit — an issue conservatives coincidentally rediscover is an urgent threat to all we hold dear every time a Democrat gets elected president — suffer a possible financial shortfall of its own, with only $279,000 estimated in grosses. I don’t know exactly how much support Griggs got from the very significant conservative media structure in this country, but that $520 per screen average is not good. It wasn’t the lowest per screen. That was $420 for the ninth week of the low budget horror pic, “Piranha 3D,” which is edging closer to the $26 million mark in theaters. There’s a joke there somewhere, but I’m not seeing it.

For its part, “Secretariat” is getting decent, but not too excited reviews. From Randall Wallace, a director with a style that is both big “c” and small “c” conservative and written by Mike Rich of “Finding Forrester” and “Radio,” the tone is definitely old school and inspirational. There’s an audience for that. Perhaps reading more than is there because of Wallace’s past films, Andrew O’Hehir of Salon both praised and damned the film politically, only to be slammed in turn by a liberal of a less snarky nature, Roger Ebert, who writes that “Secretariat was not a Christian.”

On the other hand, the week’s other new release, “My Soul to Take” marks the return of Wes Craven to the slasher horror genre after five years with a 3-D entry that DiOrio thinks has a shot at “the mid-teen millions.” The movie is being sequestered from critics and sure sounds like a retread of past dead teenager films. On the other hand, even as a squeamish guy who will never, ever see his “Last House on the Left” or “The Hills Have Eyes,” I’ve always admired Craven — I’ve been able to make it through a few of his films — and he was nice to me and some other geeks when I met him as a teenager. I won’t be mad if it does better than expected.

In limited release are far more movies than I have time to talk about tonight adequately, but I’ll mention a few anyway.  “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” is actually not such a limited release, as its being opening in 742 theater nationwide. It a dramedy featuring the underrated Zach Galifianakis from the team that made the highly acclaimed indie dramas “Sugar” and “Half-Nelson,” that is dividing critics to some extent, with my colleague Jason Zingale being not too impressed.

We also have some potential Oscar material with the young John Lennon biopic “Nowhere Boy” and potential retching material with the remake of the ultra-controversial grindhouse torturific horror rape-revenge legend, “I Spit On Your Grave” (also on my “never, ever see list”). “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife” is an Anglo-Indian production being touted as a combination of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and “Shaun of the Dead.” Finally, I wish I could say better things than I did in my review of the latest from my favorite non-auteur living director, Stephen Frears, “Tamara Drewe” but ex-Bond-girl star Gemma Aterton is definitely worth a look.

And while Vince is busy trying to persuade Sasha not to do the porno by getting her a part in his new movie, Eric is desperately trying to keep Vince attached to said movie. That’s because the studio wants Vince to take a drug test, and he flat out refuses, claiming that he’s never been in any kind of trouble that would suggest he should need to be tested. Thankfully, Billy finally confesses to Eric that he did witness Vince doing some coke with Scotty Lavin at that party, and after ripping Scotty a new one right in front of a prospective client, he then confronts Vince about his drug use. But instead of apologizing to Eric for lying, Vince just acts like a giant prick, warning Eric to stay out of his personal business and practically demanding that he find Sasha a part in “Airwalker” or else.

Personally, this behavior still seems a bit out of character for Vince (especially after everything he’s already gone through following the “Medellin” debacle), but he’s still attached to the movie when it’s all said and done. Unfortunately, Randall Wallace is not, who chose to walk away from the project after the studio bent to Vince’s will. The real question isn’t whether they’ll be able to find a new director, though, but just how in the world Vince is going to bounce back a second time when Hollywood becomes privy to this scandalous behavior.

It certainly can’t end well for him, but at least Ari is trying to mend his broken relationships as he experiences trouble on both home fronts. Not only has Ari promised a “kinder, gentler” workplace to his current staff just as old employees begin to come out of the woodwork to sue him, but Mrs. Ari feels embarrassed by the entire situation, going so far as to call an emergency therapy session to try and work out their marital problems one last time. Ari would probably tell you that there’s nothing wrong with his marriage, but Mrs. Ari wants some changes (including a no-Blackberrys-in-the-house rule and no more broken promises) lest she have to reevaluate their relationship. Though Ari seems a little hurt by the ultimatum, he eventually agrees, if only because he’s already late for an important meeting with Mark Cuban.

Then again, it’s probably a good thing that he was, or Turtle would have never run into Cuban while waiting to speak with Ari at his office. Turtle’s in desperate need of an investor for the tequila business, because although the demand is high after Vince’s impromptu Twitter blitz of Avion, Carlos can’t fill the order. He says that they need $5 million just to build the kind of factory needed to produce that much tequila in that amount of time, but what exactly did he expect with Vince promoting it? He claims that they weren’t planning to expand the business until 2013, so why bother with any kind of marketing campaign if you’re not ready to supply the product? If these guys are as legit as they’re supposed to seem, they don’t know a thing about running a business. Thankfully, Turtle has his fancy degree from UCLA, and with a big investor like Cuban on board, it might just be enough to get Avion off the ground.

Meanwhile, Drama is still stuck in neutral after reconfirming to Eric that he has no interest in “Johnny’s Bananas,” despite the fact that the studio wants to go ahead with the project. In fact, the studio is so convinced that it could be the next “The Simpsons” that Phil is willing to recast the part if Drama passes. But as Eric is quick to inform him, that’s not going to happen as long as he owns the show. Of course, I’d be willing to bet that Billy would sell him out if it meant a second chance to make it in Hollywood, but it’s not going to matter, because Drama is going to do the show eventually, no matter how stupid it sounds. And I’m sorry, but “Johnny’s Bananas” would never, and could never, be as good as “The Simpsons.” Heck, it should consider itself lucky just to be mentioned in the same sentence as “The Simpsons,” because it’s one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard. That’s not the first time I’ve said that, and it won’t be the last.

I’m not sure how long Billy is going to wait to speak up, but if he truly is Vince’s friend, he would have said something by now. Maybe he was scared because Scotty Lavin (who also partook in the snorting festivities) was in the same room, but that’s no reason to wuss out like that. Still, just like last week’s subplot involving Turtle and Alex’s shaved bush, I simply don’t buy Vincent Chase as a cokehead. Maybe the writers think they need to drag his character through a drug addiction (and eventual drug rehab program) before he can finally win an Oscar in the much rumored “Entourage” movie (honestly, where else can it go?), but despite Vince’s shortcomings as a responsible adult, he just never struck me as the kind of guy who would experiment with drugs. Blame the porn star girlfriend or just lazy writing.

Speaking of Billy, it looks like he’s going to be hanging around for these last few episodes, and for once, I don’t mind. Though he was obviously more entertaining as a self-destructive prima donna, it’s nice to see him acting like a regular dude for once. Unfortunately, that also means that we have to endure this stupid storyline about him creating an animated series for Drama. Now, I’m no Hollywood agent, but how in the world could anyone think that “Johnny’s Bananas” – a cartoon about a “high-strung simian trying to make it in the human world” – is a good premise for a TV show? I always thought Eric had good taste, but if he’s truly intrigued by the idea of Drama voicing a cartoon gorilla, then well, I clearly didn’t know him as well as I thought. Then again, this was the second time in the same episode where one of the leads did something completely out of character, so maybe it can just be chalked up to lazy writing.

Turtle’s tequila storyline was actually much improved this week thanks to some brief cameos by Mark Wahlberg and Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, but since nothing of real significance actually happened, let’s just skip Turtle this week and move on to the highlight of the episode: Ari. It’s been quite a rollercoaster for everyone’s favorite super agent these past few weeks, but just when it looked like Deadline Hollywood was going to run a potentially career-killing piece on him, nothing happened. Instead, Ari learns from an inside source at DH (Carrie Fisher in a surprisingly small role) that Lizzie has left Amanda’s agency after only a day on the job, and when he visits her to find out what happened, Lizzie apologizes for threatening to sue him, claiming it was all Amanda’s idea.

Ari is more than happy to settle their dispute by doing whatever he can to help her out, and when she suggests that he get her a studio job, Ari pays a visit to Dana Gordon to ask for a favor in securing Lizzie an interview. In return, Dana wants Ari to convince Lenny Kravitz to take a role in the new Russell Crowe movie, but even though he fails to deliver, Lizzie still holds up her end of the deal by giving Ari the tapes. Unfortunately for Ari, that didn’t stop someone else from leaking the information to Deadline Hollywood anyway, and before he knows it, news of Ari’s questionable treatment of his staff spreads across Hollywood. Jerry Jones is one of the first to call, confirming that the NFL deal is off, and we don’t even know what his wife had to say. Still, you’d think that she knows Ari well enough to know that while he can be crude and crass at times, he’s still a really good man when it counts. Whether his clients and co-workers feel the same way, however, remains to be seen.

Sasha may be classier than she looks, but Drama and Scotty Lavin most certainly are not, launching into a discussion about anal sex that results in Eric confessing he’s never tried it. Scotty claims that Eric needs to do it at least once before he gets married, and Drama agrees (“You kidding? Vagina’s my third favorite hole.”), but when Eric mentions the idea to Sloan, she reminds him that they did try it once… unsuccessfully. That didn’t stop them from trying again, however, but just as Eric suspected, he likes her vagina. It was a rare comedic twist in the relationship that was sorely needed, because up until now, the writers have made Eric’s decision to marry Sloan seem like a bad thing. And if you’ve seen her recently (or heard the actress that plays her talk about all of her awesome qualities in that promo HBO has been airing recently), then you know that it’s not.

Getting back to Vince, while it may have seemed a bit unprofessional to bring Sasha with him to his meeting with Stan Lee and Randall Wallace, I don’t think it should have had anything to do with the fact that she was a porn star. Granted, I can understand their caution about working with young actors who turn out to be the latest fuck-up of the month, but if they hadn’t been so prudish about Sasha’s career, then Vince probably wouldn’t have acted like a giggly little child. The fact that he mixed some of Turtle’s tequila with a Vicodin certainly didn’t help, but I’d be more concerned about him getting addicted to pain meds (or looking like an ass as the face of some tequila) than losing out on a job because he’s dating a porn star. And from the looks of things, Vince is about to go 2-for-2 in that area.

All is still not well in Drama’s camp, either. After freaking out upon hearing that John Stamos still hasn’t called back about the script, Drama nearly has another panic attack when he learns that Bob Saget is trying to steal his role. It certainly doesn’t help that Saget and Stamos are old friends, or that the network actually prefers Saget over Drama, but when Drama learns that the part was never actually written for him as he was led to believe, he seems to just throw in the towel. Hopefully that’s not the end of Drama’s search for a new show, but I have to imagine that if Phil is still fighting for him at the network, then there’s a good chance he’ll get it when all is said and done. Who knows? Maybe Stamos will drop out and Drama will take over his part.

I’ve been right before – as early as last week, when I suggested that if Lizzie was working in cahoots with anyone to get revenge on Ari, it would probably be Amanda Daniels. Granted, it took an entire episode of prodding clients about who was backing Lizzie before Amanda herself called Ari to proclaim war, but this is definitely a nice little twist for the season. Though Ari succeeded in holding on to some of his star clients (including Mike Tyson, Jessica Simpson and Aaron Sorkin) for the time being, he might have to take a more hands-on approach to his agency if he hopes to keep them. I can’t imagine he’ll be able to follow through on Tyson’s idea of a black “Brady Bunch,” but I am curious to see if anything comes of this Sorkin/Simpson business. It’s hard to imagine Simpson doing a dramatic acting role, or someone as well-regarded as Sorkin to actually write it for her, but we’ve certainly seen crazier things on the show.