WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is still +4% above last year and now +6% above the average for this point the past four years ($1.638 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $4.8 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office […]

  What’s worse than shamelessly airing a piece of calculated trash designed to exploit both past and present celebrities, all for the sake of ratings?  Not getting those ratings.  Last night’s LIZ & DICK on Lifetime, despite all the publicity in the world, only managed a 1.0 rating in 18-49s, which is lower than a […]

> Watch It At Home. Were the executives at Warner Bros so desperate to be in business with Russell Brand that they huddled together in a conference room one day, frantically going through their library titles in search of alcoholic lead roles he could play?  (“Days of Wine and Roses… a little dark.  Clean and […]

A very normal set of ratings for the NCAA Basketball Tournament on Friday, March 20, the second and final day of the Round of 64.  After a very exciting Thursday with many upsets and close games, Friday was more by the book, with higher-seeded teams mostly winning (often with lopsided margins).  The ratings for the […]

Scandal shows some heat. ABC:  A dynamite episode of SCANDAL (written by creator Shonda Rhimes) that managed to propel the story both backwards and forwards via flashbacks and a startling episode-ending revelation had by far its best-rated episode of the season, up 0.3 from last week to 2.5 and notching a 10PM win.  This was […]

  OPENINGS:  Could JUSTICE LEAGUE (RatPac/DC/Warners) actually lose money?  That possibility exists after a worldwide opening (except Japan, not a huge superhero market) that hit only $281.5M, a number that sounds big only when it isn’t put up against $450M in production/marketing costs, not to mention other sunk expenses like distribution costs and interest.  In […]

Weekend #14 of 2015 is looking like $192 million for the top 12 films this weekend, way above the norm for this weekend and heading for a record volume. Opening at around 3,900 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Furious 7 from Universal should average $30,200 […]

CBS’s second half of the Sunday NFL doubleheader did a terrific 17.0 HH rating in the metered markets (mostly Pittsburgh at Dallas between 4:30 and almost 8:00 pm). NBC’s Sunday Night Football at 8:30 pm averaged a 15.2 HH rating in the 56 metered markets (San Francisco at New England, briefly interrupted by President Obama’s […]