You can’t go wrong with football. FOX:  Most of the major college bowl games have migrated to ESPN, but the COTTON BOWL remains on broadcast (for now), and gave FOX an easy win for the night, with a preliminary 3.1 rating in 18-49s that’s solidly higher than last year’s 2.5 for the game. ABC:  All […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #1 of 2013 is on pace for $124 million, very much line with the comparable weekend in previous years.  Texas Chainsaw 3D is opening somewhat better than forecast ($22.5 million versus our forecast of $17.8 million), while Django Unchained continues to perform solidly. In limited release, The Impossible is stronger than forecast […]

  Today we conclude our early look at 2013’s coming attractions.  (The line-up for January-March is here; April-June is here, and July-September is here.)  Once we start heading this far down the calender, however, postponements and reschedulings will be increasingly common, and there are any number of major titles that haven’t yet even been assigned […]

  The Writers Guild of America, it should quickly be noted, operates under very strict eligibility rules, only allowing awards to go to films produced under WGA or WGA-affiliated contracts.  That disqualified a number of very prominent Oscar contenders this year, including Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild, and left […]

This airing against no competition thing is fun! CBS:  On Thursday it was the Eye’s turn to be the only network with original regular programming, and as with NBC the night before, it provided some lovely numbers.  THE BIG BANG THEORY kicked things off with a massive 6 rating (up 0.6 from the show’s last […]

  As the movie awards season starts to get going, here’s an early look at how the betting odds are shaping up on the Internet.  Lincoln is the clear favorite for Best Picture, with bookmakers offering a little under $2 on a $1 wager.  Steven Spielberg is also the favorite for his direction of Lincoln, but […]

  We continue our survey of the current schedule for Hollywood releases this year.  We’ve already looked at January-March and April-June; today we’ll see what late summer and early fall have in store.  (October-December is here.) The holiday weekend brings two big bets on July 3:  DESPICABLE ME 2 (Universal) will try to cement its […]

NBC comes up with a Wednesday night formula that works:  air against no competition. NBC:  With reruns on three other networks and a weak reality show on the fourth, NBC went to town on Wednesday night, with season highs galore.  WHITNEY (which has been adjusted creatively a great deal from last season, but to little […]