Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #16 of 2014 looks like $122 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, not as high as forecast but still up 9% from the typical total for this weekend.   Opening at 2,417 theaters Wednesday (with $7.0 million across Wednesday and Thursday), Heaven Is for Real from Sony grossed $7.8 million Friday, putting […]

  In an appropriately biblical development for this Easter weekend, it appears from preliminary numbers at Deadline that David will defeat Goliath, and the $12M-budgeted HEAVEN IS FOR REAL (TriStar/Sony) will handily outgross the $100M+ TRANSCENDENCE (Warners).  On Friday, Heaven pulled in a reported $8M (on top of $7M from Wednesday and Thursday), and although […]

  Some shows said farewell to their seasons more effectively than others. ABC:  SCANDAL had its biggest season finale to date, up 0.4 from last week to 3.4 and (with Big Bang Theory in reruns) easily the highest-rated show of the night.  It towered over lead-in GREY’S ANATOMY, which fell 0.1 to 2.5 after an […]

Thursday preliminary broadcast ratings:

  The hunger for religious-themed movies hasn’t been dissipated at all by the recent Son of God, God’s Not Dead and Noah, as HEAVEN IS FOR REAL (TriStar/Sony) had a very healthy $3.7M start on Wednesday at 2417 theatres despite indifferent reviews (50% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), edging out CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney) […]

  A deadly night of reruns for the most part. CBS:  The highest rated show of the night was SURVIVOR, and even it was down 0.2 from last week to 2.2.  It was followed by reruns of CRIMINAL MINDS (1.4) and CSI (1.2). FOX:  The absence of new competition on most of the networks didn’t […]

Weekend #16 of 2014 is looking like a very solid $130 million for the top 12 films, 15% above the typical volume for this weekend the past few years ($112 million).  Although not as strong as the previous few weekends, this is the third up weekend in a row.  None of the new films this weekend […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  AGENTS OF SHIELD gained an additional 0.1 in adjusted numbers, putting it at 2.1, 0.2 higher than last week’s 8PM episode.  (The night’s rerun was up 0.1 as well.)  Apart from that, a lot of shows also grew by 0.1, in some cases thus narrowly avoiding a series low.  Climbers included THE […]