The weekend looks a little stronger than it did yesterday ($102 million for the top 12 films rather than $98 million) but still well below the normal pace for weekend #51 .  The Hobbit is looking a little stronger than it did yesterday, and This Is 40 is a tiny bit stronger.  But everything else continues to […]

  After a strong start with Skyfall and Breaking Dawn Part 2, the holiday boxoffice seems to be at risk of languishing. OPENINGS:  The thing about the Christmas/New Year’s week boxoffice multiple is that it’s real and will help every movie in theatres during the holiday season, but it’s only as good as the number it’s mutiplying. So […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #51 is on pace for a horrifying $98 million.  This weekend of the year is tricky because sometimes it contains Christmas Day itself (such as 2009 when this weekend was December 25-27 and totaled a massive $260 million) and other times it is just a slow warm up to the […]

  The Friday before a holiday weekend is a time-honored day to release bad news, but one of today’s events was a good one:  the announcement that HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER will return for a 9th and presumably final season, at the end of which we will finally really and truly know who the mother is. […]

  The X Factor cycle finale dominated a night of specials and reruns. FOX:  X FACTOR‘s 3.1 was down a substantial 0.7 from the last cycle finale, but was still enough to win on a weak holiday season night. ABC:  The night started with 1.4 for yet another Charlie Brown special, then the CMA COUNTRY CHRISTMAS special only […]

  Chicago Fire, not for the first time, responds well when it doesn’t face off directly with CSI. NBC:  After the MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANT‘s 1.8 (up slightly from last year), CHICAGO FIRE hit a 1.9, up half a point from last week. FOX:  THE X FACTOR was flat at 2.7. CBS:  A RASCAL FLATTS CHRISTMAS SPECIAL only scraped to 0.9, […]

  Kathryn Bigelow’s acclaimed ZERO DARK THIRTY (Sony) is off to a tremendous start in limited release, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.  The real-life drama about the CIA hunt for Osama bin-Laden, despite (or in part because of) being assailed by, among others, members of the US Senate for its depiction of US torture, was on track […]

The weekend before Christmas offers four wide releases and another fairly-wide release.  What a collection of underperformers.  The weekend should total a very uninspired $112 million for the top 12 films.  The 51st weekend of the year averages $172 million, and the last time this weekend started on December 21 (2007), the top 12 films […]