AMC:  The zombies were a bit subdued this week, as THE WALKING DEAD went back to its 4.9 level from 2 weeks ago, after last week’s climb back to 5.6.  As the show finally neared the intersection of its prison and Governor storylines, the combination of the 9PM airing and the 10PM rebroadcast put […]

  OPENINGS:  The only wide launch this week (2027 theatres) was the horror movie THE EMPTY MAN (20th/Disney), which despite its big-studio credentials had a nearly invisible level of marketing behind it, and started with a $1.3M weekend that was low even by pandemic standards. AFTER WE COLLIDED (Open Road) had a limited arrival at […]

> Not Even For Free It was a feel-good story last weekend when the expensive shambles called Sucker Punch went down, defeated by the relatively low-budget family comedy DIARY OF A WIMPY KID:  RODRICK RULES.  (Mitch Metcalf’s weekend boxoffice roundup is here.)  The story would have been better, though, if Wimpy 2 were any good. […]

The second and final night of the “First Four” play-in games of the NCAA Basketball Tournament were right on target versus past years.  The 6:30 pm game on TRU TV Wednesday night was almost identical to same time period last year, while the 9:15 pm was up slightly in the 18-49 sales demographics and right […]

  OPENINGS:  KILLING THEM SOFTLY (Weinstein) is estimating a pathetic $7M weekend, just about the worst of Brad Pitt’s starring career, and even that may be pushing it, since the studio is claiming a relatively soft Sunday drop.  The same is true of the even more dismal THE COLLECTION (LD), which for reasons best known […]

  OPENINGS:  In the US, DADDY’S HOME 2 (Paramount) eked out a victory among the newcomers at $30M, thanks to a 6% family audience bump on Saturday.  That’s still 22% below the opening for the first Daddy’s Home, and it’s likely that spread will increase greatly through the week, since the original comedy opened on […]

  HOME (DreamWorks Animation/20th) should soothe the embattled studio and its investors a bit.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Home earned $15M on Friday, almost double the $8M start for DWA’s Mr. Peabody and Sherman, and almost in a league with the $18.8M first day for How To Train Your Dragon 2.  That should […]

It was quite the 10PM hour on broadcast TV last night, as both NBC and ABC aired episodes largely revolving around their shows’ cancer patients. NBC:  PARENTHOOD scored a convincing win in the hour, matching its season high 2.0 with about the most wrenching “holiday” episode you’ll ever see on network TV. That beat CBS […]