Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, the weekend box office will largely be in line with Friday’s results.  Both NEED FOR SPEED (DreamWorks/Disney) and SINGLE MOMS CLUB (Lionsgate) barely budged on Saturday from their Friday starts, with Speed up $300K and Moms up $100K.  That will push Speed down to 3d place for the […]

  OPENINGS:  NEED FOR SPEED (DreamWorks/Disney) won Friday with $6.6M (which includes $1.1M from Thursday night), but it’s destined to come in 2d or even 3rd for the weekend, probably under $20M.  At a $175M cost (including worldwide marketing), $50M in the US will barely make a dent, meaning that the movie will need to […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #11 of 2014 looks like $106 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, almost exactly matching the average for this weekend over the last few years.  Two new wide releases didn’t do anything special, but two limited releases distinguished themselves.   Opening at 3,115 theaters Friday, Need for Speed from Disney grossed $6.6 […]

  It’s looking like a slow weekend at the box office, although the successive arrivals of Divergent, Noah and Captain America 2 over the next 3 weeks should keep it from becoming a trend. Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, NEED FOR SPEED (DreamWorks/Disney) probably won’t even reach $20M for the weekend.  Its reported $6.5M […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  HELL’S KITCHEN climbed 0.1, but AMERICAN IDOL stayed put, meaning that IDOL ended up just 0.2 above KITCHEN, even though KITCHEN faced off with THE BIG BANG THEORY.  BIG BANG, meanwhile, stayed at 4.9, but the other CBS sitcoms were down after adjustment, THE MILLERS and 2 1/2 MEN by 0.2 and […]

Thursday preliminary broadcast ratings:

  CBS is the most stable of the major broadcast networks, and honcho Les Moonves had stated last week that he expected to launch only around 2 dramas and 2 comedies in the fall, so unsurprisingly, the network has followed its 3-year deal to renew THE BIG BANG THEORY and its agreement to bring back […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  There was no comfort for FOX in the final numbers, which left AMERICAN IDOL at 2.4, and even worse, left SURVIVOR at 2.5, giving the 14-year old reality show veteran its first win over IDOL.  SUBURGATORY, however, eased its own pain by rising 0.2 to 1.6, reversing most of the drop from […]