WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The studios are starting to separate from each other as we approach the midpoint of the year.  20th Century Fox is nearing $1.9 billion worldwide box office to date.  Fox had a decent week with an additional $148 million worldwide (mostly from the domestic release of The Fault in Our Stars).  Warner Brothers […]

    SMASHWatch is glad TV shows don’t close in Boston.  NBC:  Last night’s SMASH pulled off the trick of being both melodramatic (poisoning! illicit sex!) and remarkably dull, an anticlimactic way to head toward next week’s season finale, and with a church production number to boot that seemed designed to let us know that […]

  OPENINGS:  MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL (Disney) had a weak $36M start in the US, down 48% from the $69.4 opening of the first Maleficent 3 years ago.  If Mistress of Evil manages the same multiple as its predecessor, it could reach $125M in the US, but that may be a stretch, because Maleficent opened […]

  This is going to be a soft weekend at the box office, since studios are largely saying out of the way of next week’s Transformers behemoth.  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere, THINK LIKE A MAN TOO (Screen Gems/Sony) will likely hold on for the weekend win, after a $12M Friday that includes $1.8M from Thursday night […]

  It is, make no mistake, a wonderful thing that FOX (with the financial cooperation of studio Warner Bros) is bringing FRINGE, one of television’s most distinctive and imaginative shows, back for a 5th and final 13-episode season.  It also has to be said, though, that Season 4 wasn’t the show’s best.  (Note:  SPOILERS will […]

  WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is still -5% below last year’s comparable span and still +1% above this point the past four years ($8.459 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost $22.9 […]

  The hills were alive with the sound of football. 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 2). Ratings analysis […]

  MONDAY UPDATE:  In the face of widespread industry skepticism, Paramount is sticking to its claim that TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION earned $100M last weekend–actually, $100,038, 390.  (The consensus is that the real number is $97-98M.)  Here’s the way the system works:  the vast majority of US theatres report their results to the 3rd-party company […]