> 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 […]

  Six seasons in, it’s probably safe to say that the people who watch MAD MEN are the people who watch Mad Men, and the ratings for last night’s Season 6 premiere were by and large very steady with last year’s launch.  Total viewership was at 3.4M, down a bit from 3.54M last year, while […]

> See A Word About Busted Pilots It was widely rumored in the weeks before the networks announced their new schedules at the Upfronts that WEEKENDS AT BELLEVUE was destined to hit the air on FOX.  In fact, even its timeslot was supposedly set:  Mondays at 9PM, following House, where it would serve as a […]

  PIXELS (Columbia/Sony) was marketed on its high concept rather than as an Adam Sandler star vehicle, perhaps reflecting not just Sandler’s dwindling value, but the shuttering of his long-term acting relationship with the studio as he moves to Netflix.  The result was better than some of Sandler’s recent flops, but far from exciting:  according […]

  With hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, the opening dates for blockbuster movies are carefully calculated months–sometimes years–in advance.  So a last minute change doesn’t come from nowhere, and it’s notable that with less than 2 months to go, Sony has moved its Will Smith/M. Night Shyamalan vehicle AFTER EARTH from its previous […]

>With over $3 billion of summer box office through Wednesday, only $53 million separates Teams Metcalf and Salem.  Metcalf’s slate of movies leads with $1.59 billion versus $1.54 billion for Salem’s.  Only one film (30 Minutes or Less) is left to open, and Salem should enjoy a strong second weekend for Rise of the Planet […]

  OPENINGS:  MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION (Skydance/China Film Channel/Alibaba/Paramount) had a solid Saturday hold, down 3% from Friday, and the studio is projecting a $56M weekend in the US, well ahead of the $47.7M opening of Mission 3, the only other entry in the series to have a conventional Friday opening.  (However, in 2006 movies […]

  Another dim night for most of the networks. NBC:  Last night marked the season’s final Friday airing of GRIMM before it moves to Tuesdays, and its send-off was unpromising, a 1.3 that was down 0.2 from its last new episode 3 weeks ago.  As could be expected after last week’s breaking news in Boston, […]