The summer movie season is officially underway, just in time for us to finish our look at the line-ups and prospects for each of the big studios.  That brings us to Paramount Pictures, the least busy but hardly the quietest of the group.  Our previous examinations: Sony Universal Warner Bros 20th Century Fox Disney […]

  THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (Sony) launched with 7PM screenings last night and earned $8.7M, which was considerably below expectations.  Although Amazing 2 topped the opening night for the first Amazing, that one started on a Tuesday (of July 4th week), so comparisons aren’t apples-to-apples.  The more applicable comparison may be that Amazing 2 started 15% […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  BAD TEACHER is already on life support, down another 0.1 in adjusted numbers to 1.4.  As often happens, THE BIG BANG THEORY gained 0.1 at the expense of THE MILLERS.  THE VAMPIRE DIARIES avoided tying its low with an extra 0.1.  All else was as-is–including the series low for AMERICAN IDOL–except that […]

  The summer movie season will be underway momentarily on the east coast, as 7PM screenings commence for The Amazing Spider-Man–which isn’t exactly riding a rave of critical support (56% positive at Rotten Tomatoes, and 35% among “top critics”).  At Sony tonight, uneasy lie the heads that wear a crown.  But meanwhile, our survey of […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  A trio of the morning’s lows were narrowly dodged when SURVIVOR, AMERICAN IDOL and SUBURGATORY were adjusted up 0.1.  But the adjustments giveth and taketh away:  REVOLUTION and CSI both lost 0.1. WEDNESDAY CABLE:  TNT’s NBA PLAYOFF games were again on top at 2.0/1.3, while an NHL PLAYOFFS Game 7 on NBC […]

Wednesday preliminary broadcast ratings:

Weekend #18 of 2014 is looking like a relatively soft $139 million for the top 12 films, 28% below the typical volume for this weekend the past few years ($192 million). Opening at over 4,000 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), The Amazing Spider-Man 2 from Sony should average $21,400 per […]

  We’re just about 24 hours away from the US arrival of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and the kick-off of the summer movie season, and in our survey of each studio’s schedule and prospects, we’ve already taken a look at Sony, Universal and Warner Bros.  Today:  the House of Murdoch, aka 20th Century Fox. LAST […]