Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #15 of 2014 looks like $131 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, a significant downgrade from yesterday’s estimate but still 17% above the four-year average for this weekend ($112 million).  Rio 2 and Captain America 2 are supporting the box office, while two smaller films in the […]

  RIO 2 (20th/Blue Sky) appears to be losing altitude, according to preliminary box office numbers at Deadline.  The sequel reportedly climbed 30-34% on its second day of release, from $11.9M on Friday to $16M or less.  That would be a big drop from the 69% bump the first Rio had on its initial Saturday […]

  FOX:  The season premiere episodes of KITCHEN NIGHTMARES ran at 1.2/1.1, far better in the 9PM hour than sitcoms have done for FOX all season.  They were also up from last season’s 0.9 premiere. ABC:  The night started with 1.1 for LAST MAN STANDING, down 0.3 from last week.  That didn’t help the season […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #15 of 2014 looks like $143 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up 28% from the four-year average for this weekend ($112 million) and on its way to record for a mid-April weekend.  Rio 2 and Captain America 2 are fueling the box office, while two smaller films in […]

  RIO 2 (20th) has leaped out to a Friday lead, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, one that it should be able to sustain for the weekend.  The Rio sequel has $11.5M on Friday, about 10% ahead of the first Rio‘s $10.3M opening day.  That film made $39.2M for the weekend, and Rio 2 […]

  UPDATE:  Lots of adjustments, but none of them over 0.1, with AMERICAN IDOL, THE BIG BANG THEORY, GREY’S ANATOMY, SHARK TANK and COMMUNITY up (narrowly avoiding series lows in some cases), and THE MILLERS and ELEMENTARY down. THURSDAY CABLE:  VIKINGS and PAWN STARS led the way for History once again, at 1.0 and 0.8/1.0 […]

Thursday preliminary broadcast ratings:

  Jon Stewart is becoming positively Lorne Michaels-ian in his influence over comedy culture far beyond his own show.  It was announced today, to no one’s great surprise, that his colleague and protege Stephen Colbert will take over the helm of CBS’s late-night talk show when David Letterman retires next year.  (Once it was revealed […]