OPENINGS:  OBLIVION (Universal) had a solid $38.2M start (although the studio is estimating the lowest Sunday drop in the Top 10, so that number may come down tomorrow), with a 12% Saturday bump.  The less good news is that overseas, which holds the key to the film’s success, business was down to $33.7M after […]

  This is what it came to for SMASH and VEGAS, both starry, expensive shows that once had Emmy lights glittering in their eyes:  fighting it out for 3rd place at 8PM on a Saturday night.  Behind the 1.5 for a UFC match on FOX, behind even the 0.7 for ABC’s misbegotten game show BET ON […]

  OPENINGS:  OBLIVION (Universal) had a fairly good start, with a $13.3M Thursday night/Friday that should give it a $35-38M weekend, depending on word of mouth.  But that’s still lower than the $15.3M earned by GI Joe: Retaliation on its second day of release only 3 weeks ago, and at a probable higher cost (Universal […]

Not quite as exciting as a live freeway police pursuit but still very compelling and much more relevant, the coverage of the reaction to the capture of the remaining Boston Marathon Bombing suspect brought viewers to the normally tough to program Friday evening.  Collectively, the broadcast networks earned a 7.1 rating with adults 18-49 in […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #16 of 2013 is looking like $102 million for the top 12 films, down 19% from the same weekend last year and down 8% from the average the past few years for this weekend.   Opening at 3,783 theaters Friday, Oblivion from Universal grossed $13.3 million Friday and is on track for […]

  Tom Cruise’s OBLIVION (Universal) faced no significant competition for its opening this weekend, and according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, it had a fairly strong $13.8M Friday (including $1.1M from Thursday night screenings), which should put it on track for a $35M+ weekend, a bit higher than Mitch Metcalf’s weekend prediction.  Nonetheless, with a […]

  A brief ratings note:  the bulk of Friday’s network primetime schedule was preempted on the East Coast for live news coverage of the arrest of the suspected Boston Marathon bomber, and reruns were substituted for the scheduled episodes on the West Coast, so there won’t be any meaningful ratings for Friday night (other than […]

  After two episodes proving that even a lead-in from The Voice can’t rescue some shows, NBC’s Eva Longoria-produced READY FOR LOVE is no more, yanked off the Tuesday schedule and with no airing of its remaining episodes currently scheduled.  This is a particularly ugly miss by NBC, which was so high on Love that […]