If preliminary numbers at Deadline hold, GRAVITY (Warners) will own the new record for all-time best October opening.  It had a superb $23.5M Saturday, up 35% from its $17.5M opening day, for what should be a $55M+ weekend.  That would handily break the current October record of $52.6M for Paranormal Activity 3.  More importantly, […]

  OPENINGS:  With a $17.5M Friday that should get it close to $50M for the weekend, GRAVITY (Warners) is the first of the year’s Oscar hopefuls to get both rapturous reviews (98% on Rotten Tomatoes) and strong audience support.  That doesn’t guarantee awards in February–the Academy often resists science-fiction and fantasy when it’s time to […]

  ABC:  LAST MAN STANDING rose 0.2 from last week to 1.4, enough to tie it for 1st place in the timeslot on a sleepy Friday night.  But THE NEIGHBORS is probably just playing out its string, with no bump from last week’s 1.0.  SHARK TANK was down 0.2 to 1.8, still the highest rated […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #40 of 2013 looks like a decent $109 million for the top 12 films, down 18% from last year’s atypical weekend but up 10% from the average for the same weekend the past few years. Opening at 3,575 theaters Friday, Gravity from Warner Brothers grossed $17.4 million Friday and is on track for […]

  A moment of silence for the first black bunting of the new season:  giving the lie to its title, the 0.7 rating that LUCKY 7 had in its second airing sealed its doom, making the lottery drama the season’s first fatality.  For now, ABC will air reruns of its scorching hit Scandal in that […]

  AFTERNOON UPDATE:  As expected, once the NFL game was scrubbed from NBC’s ratings, its numbers got markedly worse: PARKS & RECREATION:  Down 0.1 to 1.2 (down the same amount from last week) WELCOME TO THE FAMILY:  Down 0.1 to 1.1, making it even more the worst comedy debut in NBC history SEAN SAVES THE […]

  SEAN SAVES THE WORLD:  Thursday 9PM on NBC – If Nothing Else Is On… This is the kind of sitcom SEAN SAVES THE WORLD is.  A co-worker of Sean (Sean Hayes), Liz (Megan Hilty), walks into his office already talking, not realizing that he’s actually on speakerphone with their new boss.  When she’s called […]

  WELCOME TO THE FAMILY:  Thursday 8:30PM on NBC – Change the Channel NBC continues is retro approach to fall comedy with WELCOME TO THE FAMILY. Even more than Sean Saves the World and The Michael J. Fox Show, Family seems intended for viewers just an AARP mailing away from TVLand, for whom the very idea […]