USA reels in 'Indiana Jones'

Pre-buys of unreleased movies are back in vogue, and USA Network has landed a big one: Paramount and Lucasfilm's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

USA is buying not only the latest sequel but the first three entries in the series as part of an overall deal that could cost the network $40 million, depending on the box office racked up by "Crystal Skull" in U.S. theaters. (USA's license fee is directly tied to the movie's domestic theatrical revenues.)

USA and Par declined to comment on the deal.

Paramount won't be releasing "Crystal Skull" until May 22, but the deal calls for USA to get its first runs of the previous three -- "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), "The Temple of Doom" (1984) and "The Last Crusade" (1989) -- in May as a marathon promotional vehicle for the new pic.

"Crystal Skull" is only the latest purchase in a marketplace distinguished by unusually active bidding for pre-release theatricals. In the past two weeks, USA nabbed "Sex and the City: The Movie" and the Will Ferrell vehicle "Semi-Pro" in pre-buys from New Line, and FX harvested five movies from Sony/Columbia before they open in theaters, including two Judd Apatow comedies: Ferrell movie "Step Brothers" and "Pineapple Express," with Seth Rogen.

USA is also high on sequels, having locked up the three "Pirates of the Caribbean" pics, the two "National Treasure" movies, "Ocean's Thirteen" and "The Bourne Ultimatum."

One reason USA was able to outbid its two main rivals, TNT and FX, for the "Indiana Jones" package is that all four movies are likely to play on both USA and its sister net Sci Fi Channel, with maybe even a run or two on its Bravo sibling. Paramount and USA are still working out the details of these extra exposures; USA is looking to amortize its license fee over at least three networks.

USA takes title to "Crystal Skull" in 2011, and during the course of the movie's multiyear license term, Paramount will get the right to sell a few runs to a broadcast net in a carve-out following USA's premiere group of runs.

Movie fever has taken hold among the big general-entertainment cable networks at least in part because off-net hours including "Without a Trace" and "Cold Case" have disappointed in the ratings.

These nets have held off buying reruns of such current shows in the genre as "Criminal Minds" and "Numbers," and no new scripted primetime hours on the broadcast schedules in 2007-08 have scored big enough numbers to be of immediate interest to USA or TNT.