NETWORK FINALS:  WORLD SERIES Game 5 adjusted to 5.3, and SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL adjusted to 4.8.  Elsewhere, 60 MINUTES fell 0.3 to 1.2, and WISDOM OF THE CROWD dropped 0.1 to 0.7.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart           CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  AMC’s THE […]

  The moviegoer love affair with CG spectacles continues in full force, as GODZILLA (Warners/Legendary) appears, on the basis of preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere, to be headed for a $36M Friday (including $9.3M from Thursday night).  If that number holds, it’ll be midway between the $35.2M opening day for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 […]

  OPENINGS:  CRAWL (Paramount) may be an example of a studio outsmarting itself.  Paramount held no critics screenings, presumably because disdain was expected, and thus was unable to create any advance buzz around a response that turned out to be remarkably enthusiastic (88% on Rotten Tomatoes).  The result was a tepid $12M opening, and since […]

  The critical consensus on this season of JUSTIFIED–including here–was that it was excellent, perhaps the best of the series so far.  Viewers, though, seemed less enthused, as last night’s season finale had just a 0.7 rating in 18-49s, down almost 45% from the Season 4 premiere (and down 30% from the Season 3 finale).  […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  SHARK TANK lost 0.03 to 0.52, and 20/20 was down 0.08 to 0.41. CBS:  SWAT was steady at 0.46, FIRE COUNTRY gained 0.04 to 0.52, and BLUE BLOODS ticked up to 0.42. NBC:  LOPEZ VS LOPEZ rose 0.04 to 0.33, YOUNG ROCK held at 0.27, and DATELINE fell 0.17 to 0.32. […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #6 of 2013 is another weak one: only $84 million for the top 12 films (about 50% behind the pace for the same weekend the last few years, an even steeper drop than last weekend).  The lone bright spot: Identity Thief.  Our big lesson: never underestimate Melissa McCarthy.  Our outlook […]

Weekend #13 of 2015 is looking like $123 million for the top 12 films this weekend, slightly below the comparable weekends the past few years. Opening at around 3,150 theaters Friday (above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), Get Hard from Warner Brothers should average $9,200 per theater for the three-day weekend (for […]

  OPENINGS:  The numbers for STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (Lucasfilm/Disney) were always going to be huge, but despite all the “dog ate its homework” excuses like pre-holiday shopping syndrome that are ricocheting around the trades today, a $175.5M start in the US is a significant disappointment.  Anyone who’s seen Skywalker knows that it […]