> DISCLAIMER: These initial impressions are based on the clips (usually 3-5 minutes) released by the networks to use in their Upfront presentations and for promos.  They’re chosen to sell the show, not to accurately represent it.  So take the reactions below with a large satchel of salt–we may well feel differently about these shows […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2017 to date is still down -1% from last year and now +2% above the average for this point the past four years ($9.518 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed […]

  The big box office news this weekend is happening far from these shores, as AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON (Disney) opens in slightly over half the world in advance of its US launch next Thursday night.  It had already racked up $44.5M just from Wednesday/Thursday results in some of those territories.  Here, a soft pre-Avengers weekend allowed FURIOUS […]

  It’s been a busy couple of days for premieres and returns on basic cable (pay cable’s big night is this upcoming Sunday, when both HBO and Showtime begin their winter schedules).  The winner:  PRETTY LITTLE LIARS on ABCFamily, with a strong 1.4 rating in 18-49s that was beaten for the night only by an […]

> A few notes: these projections are for original episodes (no repeats) aired in the 4th quarter of 2011.  Series premieres will likely be .3-.4 higher, thanks to network marketing pushes, and then tend to go down over time.  We’ll be updating the numbers after we see full pilots and also as we get a […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #3 of 2013 is now on pace for $122 million, up from the $113 million estimate yesterday and now running ahead of the pace for the comparable weekend the past several years.  Just about every film in the top 12 picked up the pace with solid business on […]

> X-Men: First Class opens in first place but below expectations.  Weekend on pace to be up 24% over last year’s comparable weekend.X-Men: First Class opened with $20 million on Friday, and it looks like the prequel will gross about $53 million from Friday-Sunday.  The film is headed for $160 million in North America when […]

The ratings for last night’s Super Bowl are coming in a little lower than anticipated in terms of average audience (the number of households or viewers watching in an average minute), but the “total audience” (the number that watched all or part of the game) set a new record: 164.1 million people 2 years or […]