OPENINGS:  MALEFICENT (Disney) didn’t come cheap–with worldwide marketing, its price-tag will top $300M.  But it seems to be money well spent, as its $24.2M Friday should propel it into a $70M+ weekend.  It’s also launching well overseas, with $20M on Friday from 35 markets (plus $21M from some of those markets in the 2 […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #22 of 2014 looks like $159 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 16% above the norm for this weekend but -1% from last year.   Opening at 3,948 theaters, Maleficent from Disney grossed $24.2 million Friday and late Thursday, putting the film on track for a $71.0 million opening three-day weekend (well […]

  MALEFICENT (Disney) performed as well as its Thursday night start suggested it might, at the high-end of expectations according to preliminary Friday numbers at Deadline and elsewhere.  The revisionist fairy tale surged to $24-25M on Friday (that includes the $4.1M from Thursday night), and should be headed for a weekend well north of $70M, […]

  MALEFICENT (Disney) made it clear very quickly that it’s not going to play strictly as a family movie, earning a strong $4.2M in Thursday night screenings that began at 7PM.  That’s better than the Thursday night business for Alice in Wonderland ($3.9M) and Oz: The Great and Powerful ($2M), and more than half the […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  Both GANG-RELATED and BLACK BOX went up 0.1 in final numbers, which is a bit heartening for GANG in particular, since it means the show went up–however slightly–from its premiere.  Also up 0.1:  the BACHELORETTE rerun. THURSDAY CABLE:  Soon ABC will be airing the Finals, but for now the NBA PLAYOFFS are […]

  The clock starts ticking on a network head’s job the second that he or she takes it, and today time ran out for Kevin Reilly, Entertainment Chairman of the FOX television network.  (Everyone is being extremely civilized and mouthing words about it being a voluntary decision, but in the history of the television world, […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  The only changes were in reruns:  NCIS rose 0.1 and both CW shows lost 0.1. TUESDAY CABLE:  TNT’s NBA PLAYOFFS game was in charge at 2.6.  The NHL PLAYOFFS on NBC Sports Network WERE AT 0.6.  THE DEADLIEST CATCH (Discovery) held at 1.1, and ALASKAN BUSH PEOPLE followed with 0.8.  The season […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  The only changes involved reruns:  0.1 increases for ARROW, MODERN FAMILY and THE GOLDBERGS at 9:30PM.  We didn’t mention it this morning, but it’s also worth noting that ABC’s MOTIVE, its only original show of the night, was also its lowest-rated. WEDNESDAY CABLE:  ESPN’s coverage of the Miami/Indiana NBA PLAYOFFS game easily […]