Sunday preliminary broadcast ratings: 60 Minutes and the CBS 7:00-7:30 half hour specifically inflated by 10 minutes of the end of Masters coverage from 7:00-7:10 pm (mostly the monumentally awkward and amazingly tense ceremony in “Butler Cabin,” where the Green Jacket is awarded).

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Strong overseas grosses for Captain America: The Winter Soldier has pushed Disney slightly ahead of Warner Brothers for worldwide box office to date (with each studio over $800 million so far this year).  Rio 2 has pushed Fox to over $700 million worldwide in 2014.  Sony, Universal and Paramount are next with about $500 million […]

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 […]