THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS (Universal) will win its third consecutive box office weekend, but in the US it continues to run with considerably less than vroom-vroom momentum.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, it fell 54% from last Friday to $5.1M, and is heading for a $18M weekend.  It’s now clear that Fate […]

Three films are really driving a very solid box office weekend: The Amazing Spider-Man (now a $65.0 million opening weekend and $140 million six-day opening, hitting our forecast in Tuesday’s ShowbuzzDaily Weekend Predictions), the second weekend of Ted (down a very decent 40% from its opening) and the third weekend of Brave (down 41% this […]

A down week this week (last year boasted the opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2) erased the big gains last week, and now the year to year comparisons are back to where they were a few weeks (high single-digit percentages). The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide […]

  Despite the expected Saturday surge from Big Hero 6, DUMB & DUMBER TO (Red Granite/Universal) looks like it should hold on for the weekend win.  Dumb pulled in $14.4M on Saturday, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, which was up 2% from Friday, and should give the comedy $37M for the weekend. BIG HERO […]

Don’t trust ABC with your life. ABC:  The network’s semi-improvised comedy TRUST US WITH YOUR LIFE plummeted even from its awful premiere numbers, scoring 0.6 in both of its half-hours–that was below the sitcom reruns that ran in the 8PM hour.  NY MED was also down, although less steeply, to 1.1. FOX:  Cooking reigns supreme, […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  CELEBRITY WATCH PARTY gained 0.1 in final numbers.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  MTV’s JERSEY SHORE topped Thursday cable, steady at 0.47, and RIDICULOUSNESS was at 0.15.  Bravo’s REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NYC jumped 0.09 to 0.45, and TOP CHEF was […]

  Yesterday we looked at some of the ways that the costs of producing a feature film are higher and more complicated than they might seem.  Today, some additional obstacles that lie between any movie and profitability.   These may be the most important and least-understood part of profitability calculations.  Every entity that distributes a […]

  OPENINGS:  THE BOURNE LEGACY (Universal) is holding on to its $40M opening by its fingernails, with just $265K to spare.  (We’ll find out tomorrow if that holds up.)   Bourne is an unusual action franchise that historically hasn’t overperformed internationally, and if that’s the case with Legacy as well, the picture is likely looking at […]