A Valentine’s Day in the middle of Presidents Day weekend allowed for strong Sunday studio estimates–in one case, suspiciously so. OPENINGS:  A couple of notable sidelights to the gargantuan success of DEADPOOL (Marvel/20th), which has the #17 opening of all time at $135.1M (probably $155M with the Monday holiday), is now the highest-opening R-rated […]

  The following are my final predictions for the 2014 Academy Awards (you can find a much more detailed analysis for all the major categories in our Why and Why Not? posts).  Keep in mind:  (a) I’m often wrong, (b) these are predictions and not my personal choices (Go, Team Her!), (c) the Academy loves […]

  Once again, Tuesday primetime was AMERICA’S GOT TALENT and then everything else. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54 ratings), audience skews (women 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  JUDGE STEVE HARVEY dipped 0.04 to 0.64.  ABBOTT ELEMENTARY lost 0.03 to 0.58, BLACK-ISH ticked down to 0.40, and QUEENS was up 0.04 to 0.30. CBS:  A night of reruns at 0.41/0.37/0.37. NBC:  AMERICAN AUTO fell 0.12 to 0.38, GRAND CREW dropped 0.05 to 0.33, THIS IS US shrank by 0.15 […]

>THIS MEANS WAR: Not Even For Free – This Means Crap No expense has been spared in making THIS MEANS WAR one of the worst pictures of recent years. A dreadful mash-up of the romantic-comedy and action-adventure genres, this thing has been in development for years, and although only 3 writers are credited (Timothy Dowling […]

> Despite the comparably dismal length of their Broadway runs, MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG is an entirely different species of flop from Carrie. The latter was an intruder on the Great White Way from the start, the implausible musical version of a Stephen King novel and hit horror flick that mixed high school, pigs’ blood […]

  SUNDAY HBO:  It’s still TRUE BLOOD season, and even though the show slipped 0.1 to 2.4 among 18-49s, holding more or less even in total viewers at 4.5M, that was by far the biggest cable rating of the night.  In fact, even though HBO is only in 1/3 of US households, it came within […]

    NETWORK FINALS:  The ABC line-up suffered in final numbers, with 500 QUESTIONS down 0.1 and both FRESH OFF THE BOAT reruns down 0.2.  The NCIS: NEW ORLEANS and THE FLASH reruns also lost 0.1.  AMERICA’S GOT TALENT, on the other hand, went up 0.1.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings […]