> ABC has announced its schedule of season finales for May: May 1:  LAST MAN STANDING May 6:  GCB May 7:  CASTLE May 13:  ONCE UPON A TIME               DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (2-hour series finale) May 15:  COUGAR TOWN (1-hour season finale)               PRIVATE […]

  OPENINGS:  THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS 2 (Illumination/Universal) had a better launch than this weekend’s other big arrival, but it was a major box office disappointment in its own right.  The $47.1M weekend was down 55% from the first Pets just 3 years ago, and although Pets 2 will likely hit profit thanks to […]

  Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, the weekend box office will largely be in line with Friday’s results.  Both NEED FOR SPEED (DreamWorks/Disney) and SINGLE MOMS CLUB (Lionsgate) barely budged on Saturday from their Friday starts, with Speed up $300K and Moms up $100K.  That will push Speed down to 3d place for the […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  Reruns at 0.27/0.15/0.13/0.12/0.11. CBS:  Reruns at 0.31/0.24/0.24/0.15. NBC:  After reruns at 0.23/0.19, THE BLACKLIST gained 0.04 to 0.19. FOX:  Following reruns at 0.14/0.11, HOUSEBROKEN was at 0.09/0.09 compared to last week’s 0.11. CW:  Reruns at 0.01/0.02/0.01. TELEMUNDO:  A movie at 0.12, followed by a soccer match at 1.12. UNIVISION:  AQUI & […]

> Saturday was a little weaker than expected, according to preliminary boxoffice figures reported by Deadline, resulting in some shortfalls compared to initial weekend estimates.  21 JUMP STREET (Sony) had a small Saturday decline of about 5%, which should get it to around $34M for the weekend.  The novelty of Will Ferrell speaking Spanish in […]

  Darren Aronofsky’s NOAH (Paramount) began screening at 7PM last night and took in $1.6M, a very respectable result for a serious film aimed at older and perhaps family audiences.  (No one expected it to be in a league with the $4.9M for Divergent or $3.6M for 300: Rise of An Empire.)  Because it’s one […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  Reruns at 0.36/0.26/0.25. CBS:  Reruns at 0.28/0.21/0.22. NBC:  AMERICA’S GOT TALENT gained 0.03 to 0.66, and HOT WHEELS was up 0.05 to 0.31. FOX:  BEAT SHAZAM rose 0.06 to 0.23, and DON’T FORGET THE LYRICS ticked up to 0.23. CW:  Back from a rerun week, SUPERMAN & LOIS ticked up to […]

> THE HUNGER GAMES:  Worth A Ticket – The Odds Are Mostly In Its Favor Now that virtually every blockbuster movie opens in IMAX, going to an IMAX theatre at this time of year provides a de facto trailer festival for an entire summer of (seemingly) more or less mindless spectacle.  As The Avengers blends […]