If there were any die-hards out there still nursing some flicker of hope that SMASH could survive its move to the basement of network television on Saturday nights, the ratings for its debut (which featured a fairly painful appearance by Liza Minnelli) snuffed them out.  Not only did Smash fall to its all-time low […]

The Voice increases its dominance. NBC:  THE VOICE inched up to match its Spring cycle Tuesday high of 4.5, and with CBS in reruns, it more than doubled its nearest competition.  However, that did absolutely nothing for READY FOR LOVE, which fell to 1.3, down 0.2 from its premiere and less than one-third of its […]

> Although the word “International” is part of the name of the Toronto International Film Festival, it’s still Canada’s premier festival, and naturally features quite a few homegrown films.  Some of the most notable of these have already been announced (like David Cronenberg’s A DANGEROUS METHOD), and today TIFF announced the bulk of the rest.  […]

  MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION (Skydance/China Film Channel/Alibaba/Paramount) set its sights at a $50M opening weekend in the US (you could tell because the studio claimed the target was in the $40Ms), and it seems likely to get there.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline give the 5th entry in the franchise a $20M opening day (incuding […]

  IRON MAN 3 (Disney) added some territories to its overseas footprint on Thursday, and had a huge $23.3M day, giving it a total of $36.5M in just 2 weekdays, with many more territories to open today.  It’s been pulling ahead of Iron Man 2 in many markets, and opening not far behind The Avengers, […]

> See A Word About Busted Pilots The pilot for HOMEGROWN, produced for CBS by Warner Bros Television, seems determined to hit as many dysfunctional-but-loving-family cliches as it can.  We have one grouchy alpha male in a household of women (here played by Gerald McRaney), the multiple generations living in one sitcom (huge living room!) […]

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). PREVIOUS SATURDAY NETWORK SCORECARDS (FAST NATIONALS) PREVIOUS SATURDAY CABLE & BROADCAST NATIONALS […]

Weekend #33 of 2015 is looking like $124 million for the top 12 films this weekend, very close to the norm for this weekend (see comparisons below). Straight Outta Compton from Universal should open with a $45.5 million three-day weekend. Early reviews at RottenTomatoes are widely supportive: 82% positive overall so far. Straight Outta Conpton is on track for […]