OPENINGS:  The first weekend of December brought the usual assortment of indies seeking a toehold before the holiday giants arrive, although this year was unusual in being dominated by Thanksgiving blockbusters, which grew the weekend box office total to a new record.  The most impressive of the newcomers was the Indian-language PUSHPA: THE RULE […]

> This marks the conclusion of SHOWBUZZDAILY‘s pre-Upfronts survey of the broadcast networks, as they reach the conclusion of the current season and decision-making time for the next.  Previously this week, Mitch Metcalf, veteran programming executive Ted Frank and I reviewed the challenges and potential strategies for FOX, ABC, and NBC, which leaves us with […]

  OPENINGS:  It was important for THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (Village Roadshow/MGM/Columbia/Sony) to hit the $35M that the studio is currently claiming, because that puts it slightly over the two obvious comparisons:  the $34.1M for the last Denzel Washington/Antoine Fuqua collaboration The Equalizer, and the $34.5M just a few weeks ago for Sully, a film similarly […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The arrival of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has vaulted Sony to top of the heap among the studios, with just over $1.1 billion for 2014 so far.  Disney and 20th Century Fox trail with just under $1 billion each.  Warner Brothers is next with about $900 million year to date, while Universal and Paramount […]

>Although technically BREAKING IN hasn’t yet been canceled (networks and studios hold on to their options until contractually forced to relinquish them), it’s essentially received a notice of execution. The plan had been for Breaking to inherit the Tuesday 9:30PM slot from RAISING HOPE after that show airs its season finale next week, running out […]

  AMERICA’S GOT TALENT pulled ahead in the Tuesday ratings race. 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 […]

  STATE OF AFFAIRS:  Monday 10PM on NBC (starting November 17) THE FACTS:  Katherine Heigl is the CIA agent in charge of putting together the President’s (Alfre Woodard) daily list of the nation’s Top 10 threats.  She’s also the quasi-widow of the President’s son, who was killed in an apparent terrorist attack overseas.  Except, guess […]

> Another experiment fails. ABC:  PRIVATE PRACTICE has been comfortably successful on Thursdays, in the shelter of older sibling Grey’s Anatomy. but the network’s attempt to try it out on Tuesday nights–while Shonda Rhimes’ other show Scandal occupies the Thursday 10PM slot–didn’t have a promising start.  Despite airing against a rerun on CBS, and featuring […]