Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #14 of 2014 looks like $159 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, up 40% from the four-year average for this weekend.  All credit goes to the second Captain America, as Disney has succesfully transformed April into the new May on the evolving movie release calendar.   Opening at 3,938 […]

  CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney) is as big as expected, and maybe even a little bigger.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have it at up to $38M on Friday (that includes $10.2M from Thursday night), putting it close to 20% higher than the $31.9M opening day for Thor: The Dark World, which wound up […]

  The US box office has started humming for CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER (Disney), which brought in $10.2M in shows that began at 8PM last night.  That’s considerably better than the $7.1M that Thor: The Dark World made in its Thursday night shows last November, and also better than the $9M for Man of […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  Things actually got worse for AMERICAN IDOL in the adjusted numbers, falling 0.1 to 1.7, not just yet another new all-time low, but ignominiously keeping it in a tie with THE CRAZY ONES (which also fell 0.1), a show CBS may not even renew.  THE MILLERS and ELEMENTARY also lost 0.1 each.  […]

  In about a year, the reboot of the network late-night talk shows will be complete, now that David Letterman, cranky genius of the format, has announced that sometime in 2015 he’ll be retiring.  With Jimmy Kimmel’s move to 11:35PM and the recent ascensions of Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, it will be the first […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  There were the usual 0.1 bumps (for THE MIDDLE, SUBURGATORY and MODERN FAMILY on ABC, and for SURVIVOR and CRIMINAL MINDS on CBS), and dips (CSI). but the more interesting point is what didn’t go up.  There was no afternoon joy for AMERICAN IDOL, setting things up for a potential record-breaking low […]

Wednesday preliminary broadcast ratings:

Weekend #14 of 2014 is looking like a robust $159 million for the top 12 films, 41% above the typical volume for this weekend the past few years ($113 million). Opening at around 3,900 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Captain America: The Winter Soldier from Disney should average […]