WANDERLUST:  Watch It At Home – Hippy Jokes Thawed Out From 1966   The new WANDERLUST demonstrates the strengths and limitations of amiability in movies.  Its stars, Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, have made very profitable careers out of being professionally likable.  Unlike, say, Tom Hanks, who also began his career in […]

  OPENINGS:  The older, less frontloaded audience for THE LEGEND OF TARZAN (Village Roadshow/RatPac/Warners) allowed it to slip ahead of the holiday weekend’s new arrivals, down just 10% from Friday for a 3-day $38.1M weekend that should become $46M by Monday.  Unfortunately for the mega-budgeted adventure, that still means around a $125M US total, which […]

With the end of the broadcast season comes a flurry of press releases from the broadcast networks.  FOX had the most to crow about as it won the entire season and the May sweep with Adults 18-49.  FOX’s headline: “FOX sets new broadcast industry record with eight consecutive victory among adults 18-49”.  FOX went on […]

> Disclaimer:  Network pilots now in circulation are not necessarily in the form that will air in the Fall.  Pilots are often reedited and rescored, and in some cases even recast or reshot.  So these critiques shouldn’t be taken as full TV pilot reviews, but rather as a guide to the general style and content […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  CBS’s NCAA TOURNAMENT telecast adjusted to 4.0.  In addition, the 9PM hour of DATELINE lost 0.1 in final numbers.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  A&E’s LIVE PD led the day, up a tick to 0.63.   Adult Swim’s line-up performed as […]

> SMASHWatch has plenty of company in Season Low City. NBC: For the past 2 weeks, SMASH‘s initial rating has declined in the final daily numbers. So although right now it’s at its 3rd consecutive 2.1 rating, a drop to a new season low 2.0 could be in the cards by the end of the […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2018 film slates by studio. The studio totals also include 2018 dollars for films released in late 2017. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is still +10% above last year and still+11% above the average for this point […]

  The Olympics are still almost a month away, but viewers are getting ready. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary 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 […]