OPENINGS:  Just about everything about the release of TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR (Variance/AMC Theaters) has been unique, and that includes the fact that the theater chain, a first-time distributor, has announced the weekend box office as $95-97M for now, with a definite number to be issued tomorrow.  Even at the high end, that’s […]

>The return of Dancing to Tuesday brought ABC back above a 2 rating and into second place, but far below the lofty 3.4 rating the network scored on this night a year ago.  Steady as always, CBS held on to first place for the night.  Dancing‘s recap and results shows did damage NBC, which sunk […]

  A bad night for ABC. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary live+same day key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of 2). Ratings analysis and comparisons […]

  In an appropriately biblical development for this Easter weekend, it appears from preliminary numbers at Deadline that David will defeat Goliath, and the $12M-budgeted HEAVEN IS FOR REAL (TriStar/Sony) will handily outgross the $100M+ TRANSCENDENCE (Warners).  On Friday, Heaven pulled in a reported $8M (on top of $7M from Wednesday and Thursday), and although […]

  OPENINGS:  LONGLEGS (Neon) captured the zeitgeist, successfully delivering the marketing message that it was the scariest horror movie in recent memory.  The result was  a$22.6M weekend, which set a new Neon record by a wide margin, and also marked the year’s highest non-franchise start for the genre.  Production and marketing costs for Longlegs reportedly […]

>The ratings for the ACM Awards on CBS were understated.  The corrected numbers appear below. CBS took a bit of a hit with the Academy of Country Music Awards, which were down over 20% 9% from last year’s telecast.  The night as a whole was up a tick from last week, leading CBS to a […]

  Craig Ferguson is maintaining that his decision to leave CBS and THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON in December is absolutely, entirely, utterly, completely, totally unrelated to the network’s recent decision to hand David Letterman’s slot to Stephen Colbert when Letterman steps down next year.  No, truly, he never had any interest in […]

>Another win for Katniss Everdeen. THE HUNGER GAMES: In just its 3rd weekend of release, and with plenty left in the tank, THE HUNGER GAMES (Lionsgate/Summit) hit $302.8M, and has already outgrossed every picture in the Twilight series. (Only 5 movies have gotten to $300M faster.) By this time next week, it will also have […]