OPENINGS:  The summer saga of underperforming franchise titles continued with WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (TSG/20th), with a $56.5M start that’s 22% below the $72.6M opening for Dawn 3 years ago, and just barely ahead of the $54.8M for 2011’s Rise (despite costing $60M more to produce than Rise).  Even with rave […]

  The only original programming on any network last night was also the highest rated show. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over […]

  The Emmy Awards are coming up on Sunday, and over the next few days, we’re going to take a look at the nominees in major categories, and what should–and will–win.  Today, the Movie/Miniseries section of the awards.  A few notes about these categories.  First, last year DOWNTON ABBEY was in this portion of the awards, […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  DATELINE and the new MASTERS OF ILLUSION lost 0.1 in final numbers.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  The cable day and cable news were led by CNN’s CUOMO PRIME TIME at 0.29/0.44/2.7M, with Fox News’s TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT at 0.22/0.36/3M, […]

  AGENT CARTER was creditable, if not heroic, in its debut. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of 2). […]

  It appears as though Hollywood is going to have some good news at the boxoffice this weekend, for the first time since mid-summer.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, the surprisingly sprightly HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (Sony) is off to a big start with a $11M Friday that should mean around a $38M weekend.  That number […]

It was another night where preliminary ratings won’t necessarily mean very much.  The entire CBS schedule was pushed 18 minutes in most of the country because the PGA CHAMPIONSHIP ran late, and there were NFL preseason preemptions affecting NBC and FOX.  Final ratings tomorrow morning will be more accurate. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or […]

  The race is officially on, with Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel (both from Fox Searchlight) tied for the lead with 9 nominations (The Imitation Game has 8, while Boyhood, not so much a technical showcase, has 6), and although with just a couple of exceptions (not even an Animated Film nomination for The […]