After a good weekend last week (up 18% from the comparable weekend average), this weekend is poised to be a very good first weekend of October (up over 40% and around $126 million for the top 12 films).   Opening at about 3,000 theaters Friday, Taken 2 from 20th Century Fox should average a very good $13,900 […]

Tuesday prime time averages from last night show another 24% decline in live+same day DVR viewing for the four broadcast networks (from an 11.6 combined Adult 18-49 rating for the four networks on the same night last year to a preliminary 8.8 last night).  Not exactly, the sky is falling, but it’s pretty serious. Note: […]

It’s awfully early in the season for such a lousy night. NBC:  The network was in a big hurry yesterday to announce full-season orders for GO ON and THE NEW NORMAL, and both shows responded by hitting new lows (the spin will be that they followed an unusually low clip show version of The Voice, […]

  NBC understandably wants to shout its early-season good tidings as loudly as possible, and to that end it’s given very quick back orders (9 additional episodes on top of the 13-episode initial order) to REVOLUTION, GO ON and THE NEW NORMAL.  The first two of these are completely logical, as Revolution and, to a […]

A genuine changing of the guard. NBC:  REVOLUTION slipped a bit last night (to 3.2), but it commandingly beat up both CBS and ABC, and is looking like a true hit, at least in the short term.  THE VOICE, of course, provided a dominating 4.5 lead-in that didn’t hurt. CBS:  This was supposed to be […]

NBC Monday is no fluke, with The Voice holding steady (not surprising) and Revolution hanging in there (more surprising).  CBS is suddenly incredibly mediocre on this once-proud night, ABC has slid to banality, and FOX has sunk to irrelevance on the first night of the week. Unlike last week, ESPN’s Monday Night Football does not have a market-related impact […]

  So:  what do we know now that we didn’t know a week ago? THE SWALLOWS AREN’T RETURNING TO CAPISTRANO.  Generally speaking, the TV season has a dynamic that repeats each year.  Every fall, viewers turn up in broad numbers for the launch of new series and return of old favorites, and as the season […]

Hotel Transylvania joins the worldwide chart at #14 (among films released the past four months), and it will probably move up to 8th place as the overseas receipts come in. Compared to last week, Resident Evil: Retribution and Ted were the big gainers overseas (up $34 million and $26 million since last week, respectively).