Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #23 of 2015 looks like $132 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, down significantly from the norm for this weekend as the lame summer continues.   Opening at 3,711 theaters Friday, Spy from Fox is on track for a $32.0 million opening three-day weekend (somewhat below our $39.5 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast earlier this week). […]

> DISCLAIMER: These initial impressions are based on the clips (usually 3-5 minutes) released by the networks to use in their Upfront presentations and for promos.  They’re chosen to sell the show, not to accurately represent it.  So take the reactions below with a large satchel of salt–we may well feel differently about these shows […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  JUDGE STEVE HARVEY gained 0.06 to 0.60, ABBOTT ELEMENTARY rose 0.05 to 0.59, and BLACK-ISH was steady at 0.42.  The sitcoms then aired reruns at 0.27/0.24. CBS:  Returning from 2 weeks of reruns, FBI dropped 0.12 to 0.63, FBI: INTERNATIONAL gained 0.05 to 0.60, and FBI: MOST WANTED was up 0.05 […]

> Potentially good news for Cougar Town fans. ABC:  Cougar Town needs a timeslot, and Tuesday 8:30PM should be opening up any minute now, as 20% of the people who watched WORK IT the first time ran away screaming this week, and the show plunged to a 1.6 rating.  However, that real estate may not […]

>Those interested in the disconnect between old-line film critics and audiences need look no farther than “In Defense of the Slow and the Boring,” a column in today’s NY Times.  In it, chief Times critics Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott each write about the worth of films some find unduly slow-paced, like The Tree […]

  RENT wasn’t particularly live in any respect. 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 […]

  WRATH OF THE TITANS:  Watch It At Home – Put Back the Kraken   The producers of WRATH OF THE TITANS swore that this time the 3D would be better than it was in 2010’s Clash of the Titans, and you know what… it is.  That’s not saying an enormous amount, since the 3D […]

  Everything has broken right for JOKER (BRON/Village Roadshow/DC/Warners).  Its combination of gold-standard IP with a gritty, violent, R-rated aesthetic has been largely accepted critically and earned it film festival kudos, and it’s had the benefit of controversy about its potential to stir up real-life trouble without (so far) any actual incidents that could drive […]