OPENINGS:  $17.1M for THE CALL (TriStar/Sony) is more than the movie cost to produce (although it won’t pay for the marketing), and sets the Halle Berry vehicle up to be a modest hit.  However, there’s no spinning the $10.3M for THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE (Warners), which will lose much more than its $35M production budget […]

  THE CRAZY ONES:  Thursday 9PM on CBS starting Sept. 26 – Worth A Look Well, we know David E. Kelley has been watching Mad Men.  A key scene in the pilot for his new comedy THE CRAZY ONES, which is set at an ad agency, has the show’s protagonist Simon Roberts (Robin Williams) giving […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  A full boat of NFL PRESEASON-fueled adjustments.  On ABC, the A MILLION LITTLE THINGS reruns dropped 0.1-0.3 in final numbers.  On CBS, the procedural reruns fell 0.3-0.4, and 48 HOURS was down 0.3.  On NBC, the rerun AMERICA’S GOT TALENT and DATELINE lost 0.1.  Both reruns on FOX dropped […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  The Christmas Night rerun of THE BIG BANG THEORY gained 0.1 in final numbers. Ratings in key demos for the Top 25 original cable telecasts (plus a few other lower-rated but noteworthy programs): Christmas cable was all about NBA BASKETB ALL on TNT and ESPN, with TNT’s primetime game at 1.56, the […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is a first look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is still -30% below last year’s comparable span and now -23% below the average for this point the past four years ($1.564 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $3.2 […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  There was a significant upward adjustment (to the next tenth) for the TO TELL THE TRUTH rerun in final numbers.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  ESPN’s COLLEGE FOOTBALL bowl games were at 0.80/0.78.  On History, CURSE OF OAK ISLAND gained […]

ABC won the final Sunday of the May Sweep with the Billboard Music Awards and very little competition from the other networks.  The FOX animated comedies ended their seasons at or near their respective lows, while NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice ended its season with a steep year-to-year decline and CBS programmed this final Sunday as it usually does (with a […]

  There were no new wide releases on this pre-holiday, pre-Last Jedi weekend, so all the action was in holdovers and limited releases.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, COCO (Pixar/Disney) easily retained its crown with a $6.3M Friday.  That was down 67% from last week’s holiday Friday, better than the drops for Moana (70%) […]