NOTE:  Updated throughout with official studio Christmas Day estimates. Americans unwrapped their presents and headed out to the multiplex on Christmas Day (or to a nearby indie theatre, in the case of The Interview) according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, making for an extremely healthy holiday. UNBROKEN (Universal/Legendary) needed a strong box office performance […]

Marvel’s The Avengers (distributed by Disney) increased again to $723 million to date overseas (up from $629 million last week), although the growth rate is starting to slow.  United Kingdom continues to lead the way overseas ($64.7 million so far now — up from $48.2 million this time last week).  Mexico remains the second-biggest territory ($50.3 million […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  FOX’s Utah vs. USC COLLEGE FOOTBALL game rose 0.2 to 1.0, while ABC’s Ohio State vs. Rutgers game stayed at 1.6.  48 HOURS also gained 0.1. Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart   ‘ CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  This being a fall Saturday, 6 of the day’s Top 10 were COLLEGE FOOTBALL (topped by […]

> NEW GIRL, riding high off its exceptional rating last night, today became the first new series of the season to score a back-order of Spring episodes.  Even better, FOX made a statement by ordering 11 additional episodes instead of the usual 9 (normally, even if the network thought they’d ultimately want 11, they’d order […]

  OPENINGS:  HAPPY DEATH DAY (Blumhouse/Universal) opened so well at $26.5M that inevitably, despite the fact that it appears to tell a completely closed-end story, talk of a franchise has started.  You can’t blame them:  Death Day isn’t quite at the blockbuster level of Blumhouse’s Split ($40M) or Get Out ($33.4M), but it’s starting better […]

  ABC has started putting up its Upfront trailers for the network’s new series, so we’re going to chime in with some instant impressions.  As always, remember that a trailer isn’t necessarily a real sign of what a TV series will be (sometimes it’s not even a sign of what the pilot is).  It’s the […]

  There were no miracles on Saturday to lift the faltering box office, although preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere suggest that the holdovers did better than the newcomers. DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (20th) will take its 2d consecutive weekend title easily.  It earned around $15M on Saturday, down about 40% from […]

  The slide of THE VOICE continued to its finale. 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). Ratings analysis […]