At a cost of $175M (meaning $300M+ with global marketing), SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (Universal) is a long way from profit.  But credit the studio with making “Snow White” seem cool enough to garner a solid opening (and credit the studio as well with cannily minimizing expectations, so a solid opening passes for […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC;  Game 4 of the NBA FINALS was at 3.23, down four-tenths from 2022’s Game 4. CBS:  Reruns at 0.20/0.16/0.14. NBC:  Reruns at 0.19/0.30. FOX:  WWE SMACKDOWN dropped 0.13 to 0.60. CW:  After a rerun at 0.05, WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY dipped 0.02 to 0.05, and GREAT AMERICAN JOKE OFF was […]

> Thursday night brought a mother lode of returning serialized dramas to broadcast TV, with both ABC and CW returning to duty.  Let’s start by looking at ABC’s 10PM PRIVATE PRACTICE, airing a fresh episode for the first time since a 2-hour special on November 17. WHERE WE LEFT OFF:  As usual, there was all […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #28 of 2013 looks like a decent $192 million for the top 12 films, up 5% from the comparable weekend the last few years.  It was a pretty good weekend for the ShowbuzzDaily Weekend Forecast, with most movies coming in within one or two million dollars of forecast. Opening at […]

> Another experiment fails. ABC:  PRIVATE PRACTICE has been comfortably successful on Thursdays, in the shelter of older sibling Grey’s Anatomy. but the network’s attempt to try it out on Tuesday nights–while Shonda Rhimes’ other show Scandal occupies the Thursday 10PM slot–didn’t have a promising start.  Despite airing against a rerun on CBS, and featuring […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  Reruns at 0.29/0.31/0.20. CBS:  The afternoon NFL PLAYOFFS game was at 7.55, but wasn’t a direct lead-in to 60 MINUTES, which fell 0.79 to 0.48.  EAST NEW YORK dropped 0.11 to 0.41, and NCIS: LA was down 0.03 to 0.34. NBC:  SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL was at 7.33, up 1.57 from last […]

  ABC is in need of a lot of help next season, and it’s ordered a ton of product for its shelves, with 5 new comedies and 7 dramas on tap.  (The network also renewed The Neighbors, Nashville and Suburgatory among the bubble shows, while canceling How to Live With Your Family, Happy Endings, Body […]

  Virtually every screening at Sundance is followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker, and while these sessions can be informative and charming (although 3 questions that need never be asked again are How long did you shoot?  What was the budget? and How much was improvised?), they can also be quite sad.  Watching them, […]