>Eight full weeks into 2012, domestic box office continues to run well ahead of last year’s slow pace and now is almost 10% ahead of the comparable period’s average for the last several years. The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between February 20 and February 26 grossed a […]

  Melissa McCarthy is a movie star. OPENINGS:  She co-stars with Jason Bateman (who is also a producer of the movie), but there’s no doubt that IDENTITY THIEF (Universal) is being sold on McCarthy’s back, and the movie is off to a great $11.2M opening day.  Frontloading and East Coast weather may hold it back […]

CBS Sports continues its springtime roll, with The Masters coverage over the weekend up about 25% from last year.  Sunday’s final round hit an impressive 10.2 household rating in the 56 local markets measured by Nielsen (covering 70% of the country). NASCAR on Saturday night on FOX averaged a 3.5 household rating, down a tenth […]

  OPENINGS:  We had a new wide release this weekend, and THE WAR WITH GRANDPA (101) managed a win over the weary Tenet with $3.6M.  That’s certainly not a number that would make anyone feel good in non-pandemic times, and since War With Grandpa had a semblance of a national marketing campaign, it’s not at […]

  OPENINGS:  ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD (Imperative/TriStar/Sony) opened on Monday to an indifferent public that didn’t care about Kevin Spacey being replaced with Christopher Plummer, and nothing has changed over the course of the holiday week.  Its first full weekend is estimated at $5.5M, which should become $7.5M with Monday included, and it’s […]

> All the buzz and acclaim for Showtime’s HOMELAND started to pay off in the ratings for its season finale, which climbed from the show’s usual 0.4-0.5 level to a 0.7.  That’s still no blockbuster, but in the mostly tiny world of pay-cable ratings, an increase of 40-50% is no small deal.  The show also […]

  More season finales, scheduled or otherwise. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary live+same day 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). Ratings analysis and […]

  INFERNO (LStar/Columbia/Sony) was expected to earn less than The Da Vinci Code ($217.5M US/$540.7M overseas) and Angels & Demons ($133.4M/$352.6M), which is why Sony spent $75M less to produce the new film.  But that still leaves $200M in production/marketing costs, and Inferno is flopping too badly to have much chance of profit.  According to […]