"Some people, internally and externally, thought it was counterintuitive to release a film about penguins in the summer," says Steven Friedlander, executive vice president of Warner Independent Pictures. "We viewed it as quintessential counter-programming." He's talking, of course, about March of the Penguins, the French nature doc which Warner's indie arm slapped a Morgan Freeman narration over and slipped into 20 screens. Penguins made $26, 269 on each of those screens last weekend, by far more than any other film (War of the Worlds, the galaxy's number one picture, made $19,719 ... at each of its 3,900 sites). Warners plans to expand the doc's release to 55 screens this weekend.