Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #23 of 2014 looks like $165 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 10% above the norm for this weekend and 15% above the same weekend last year.   Opening at 3,173 theaters, The Fault in Our Stars from 20th Century Fox grossed $26.1 million through Friday, putting the film on track […]

  CROSSBONES:  Friday 10PM on NBC Previously… on CROSSBONES:  The infamous pirate Edward Teague AKA Blackbeard (John Malkovich), has established an island kingdom for himself on New Providence in the Caribbean, with himself as its self-styled Commodore.  Thomas Lowe (Richard Coyle) is a British agent charged with recapturing a newly-invented chronometer from the pirate’s hands, […]

  THE FAULT IN OUR STARS (20th) ran away with Friday’s box office, demonstrating the hunger out there for movies that aren’t centered on special effects extravaganzas.  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere, Fault took in a huge $23.5-25M for the day (including $8.2M from Thursday night), and even if it plummets on […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  Time-zone adjusted numbers for Game 1 of THE NBA FINALS increased to 6.0, 0.3 above last year’s Game 1.  However, those same adjustments reduced the primetime JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE by a full point to 1.1, and the NBA COUNTDOWN pre-game show by 0.8 to 2.0.  In addition, HELL’S KITCHEN went up 0.1 […]

  THE FAULT IN OUR STARS (20th) was expected to get off to a quick start, thanks to its wildly enthusiastic young female fanbase, and it did:  $8.2M, a huge number for a non-special effects movie.  (It includes shows at 650 theatres with $25 tickets that bought fans a closed-circuit interview with cast and crew […]

  According to Advertising Age, advertisers have begun to buy time on the broadcast networks for the 2014-15 TV season, which is the whole reason the hoopla of the “Upfronts” exists in the first place.  There are two basic components to each of these sales (although they can become quite intricate):  the rate that buyers […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  NBC didn’t get the bump from adjusted ratings that it had hoped for, as Game 1 of the NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS rose only to 1.9 in final numbers, leaving it 0.6 below last year’s Game 1.  Elsewhere, most of the ABC line-up gained 0.1, including MOTIVE, and although THE 100 stayed […]

Weekend #23 of 2014 is looking like a pretty typical $149 million for the top 12 films this weekend, within 1% of the norm for this weekend and 4% above the same weekend last year.   Opening at over 3,000 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two […]