"It's going to take a few years to get back the rates we had before 9/11," said Ian Schrager, who owns the Hudson, Morgan, Paramount and Royalton Hotels.

NTA was reorganized in the 1980s as Republic Pictures, which is presently a subsidiary of Viacom, the parent company owning Paramount.

And he noted that even if Viacom did not end up owning Paramount, the company stood to profit handsomely from its initial bid.

Sumner M. Redstone, chairman of Viacom, which owns Paramount and Blockbuster, said the weekend box office was strong even though Friday was a very slow day.

Blockbuster is owned by Viacom, which also owns Paramount.

The megamediacorp owns Paramount, which owns Simon & Schuster as well as Prentice Hall and Macmillan.

This fall, Tom Freston, co-president of Viacom, which owns Paramount, approached Newmarket about purchasing it.

Owning Paramount will help give Mr. Redstone the leverage to avoid such rivalries.

"Sumner Redstone owns Viacom," he explained in a near whisper, "and Viacom owns Paramount, and Paramount owns me at the moment."

Charles Bluhdorn, whose Gulf+Western conglomerate owned Paramount, felt strongly about developing the Dominican Republic as a movie-making site.