OPENINGS:  The only wide opening of the aweek was the low-budget horror movie SEPARATION (Open Road), which had a slow start at $1.8M. There were some new limited releases, led by FOUR GOOD DAYS (Vertical) at 298 theatres, with a $300K weekend that translated into a per-theatre average of $1K.  THE RESORT (Vertical) at […]

>Now that we are in mid-August, let the true dumping of movies begin!  Sure they can be called summer movies, but films the next few weeks have little hope of turning in impressive box office results.  The Help (a truly rare August hit) should continue at #1 with a very small second weekend decline, while […]

  OPENINGS:  As expected, FANTASTIC FOUR (20th) plunged 25% on Saturday as word of mouth caught up with it (by comparison, Ant-Man lost just 14% on its 2d day of release), giving it a sad $26.2M weekend.  Things didn’t get any better when international was factored in, as the franchise-killer managed just $34.1M in 43 […]

      BROADCAST HIGHLIGHTS: ABC:  An all-evening marathon of HOME ECONOMICS reruns, with a 0.18-0.33 range. CBS:  Reruns at 0.26-0.29. NBC:  AMERICA’S GOT TALENT ticked down to 0.94, and COLLEGE BOWL dipped 0.04 to 0.39. FOX:  LEGO MASTERS slipped 0.02 to 0.46, while FANTASY ISLAND fell 0.11 from last week’s premiere to 0.27. CW:  […]

> The past week (seven days ending Sunday) came in down 12% versus last year’s comparable week (the second down week in a row).  Year-to-date box office is now down 4.1% versus last year.  The Help again was the lone bright spot this weekend, down only 27% from last weekend and shaking off the effect […]

    OPENINGS:  THE GREAT GATSBY (Warners) opened about as well as Warners could have hoped with a $19.8M Friday (including Thursday night).  Mothers Day is traditionally a big ticketselling day, especially for female-skewing films, and that should cushion the weekend to perhaps $55M despite bad reviews and unimpressive exit poll results, although there’s still […]

      Analysis to follow.       Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart   Top 50 Original Cable Telecasts with Demographic Detail Top 150 Original Cable Telecasts To search for a show: type Ctrl-F and type your show title in the search box. Top 150 Original Cable Telecasts: Monday May 17, 2021 P18-49 P2+ Rank […]

> Gus Van Sant has been making movies for 25 years, but Restless–apart from its technical polish–feels like the work of a Sundance newcomer. And one who’s been reading too much Salinger, while meanwhile wearing out his DVD of Harold and Maude. Restless is way beyond twee; its mega-tweeness is like a Transformers movie compared […]