OPENINGS:  INSIDE OUT 2 (Pixar/Disney) overdelivered massively compared to expectations with $155M in the US, a remarkable $65M higher than the start for 2015’s original Inside Out, and depending whether you count the “live-action” CG remake of The Lion King ($191.8M) as animated, either the #2 or #3 US opening for an animated feature […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  There was no adjustment for the GLEE finale, and in fact the only change was a 0.1 dip for the rerun of IZOMBIE’s pilot. Ratings in key demos for the Top 25 original cable telecasts (plus a few other lower-rated but noteworthy programs): Friday cable was all about the NCAA TOURNAMENT, as […]

  OPENINGS:  History seems to be repeating itself for filmmaker Kelly Fremon Craig, whose extremely well-reviewed ARE YOU THERE GOD?  IT’S ME, MARGARET (Lionsgate) opened with a soft $6.8M (and that studio estimate assumes an unusually strong Sunday).  That’s very similar to Craig’s also critically-praised 2016 The Edge of Seventeen, which had a $4.9M opening […]

The wheels have pretty much come off the Olympic cart in Russia.  Saturday night was even worse than Friday’s disaster, a preliminary 4.3 adult 18-49 rating from 8:30-11:00 pm Saturday night (assuming the first half hour is excluded from the nightly average as is common on Saturday).  This is two full rating points behind the […]

> But first–a nod to the sly marketing department at AMC, which cleverly lampooned its own predicament of trying to persuade at least some of the hordes of WALKING DEAD fans to stay tuned to the network next week for a very different show.  The result was a pair of lighthearted promos for Mad Men […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  AMERICAN IDOL gained 0.04 to 0.68, and THE GOOD DOCTOR was up 0.02 to 0.39. CBS:  The CMT MUSIC AWARDS relocated from cable, and zoomed from last year’s 0.13 to 0.67. NBC:  AMERICAN SONG CONTEST held at 0.28, and THE ENDGAME returned from a week off up a tick to 0.21. […]

> Welcome back to Network Scorecard, where we consider the perplexing case of AMERICAN IDOL. FOX:  It’s now clear that the biggest story of the 2011-12 television season is the slump in established reality-competition franchises.  Idol joins Dancing With the Stars and The Biggest Loser with a nearly 30% decline from last year’s Wednesday average.  […]

>Through Monday, July 4, Team Metcalf has pulled within $60 million of Team Salem.  Metcalf will enjoy another few weeks of Transformers: Dark of the Moon and two more marginal openings before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 on July 15 puts Salem back in the driver’s seat.  Next update on Friday.