OPENINGS:  It’s official:  THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART I (Lionsgate) opened to $123M in the US, down 20% from the first Hunger Games and down 23% from Catching Fire.  That’s still the #1 opening of the year by 23% (beating Transformers: Age of Extinction), and the 15th biggest opening ever, but there’s no way […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  After a rerun AMERICA’S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS at 0.44, CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD gained 0.03 to 0.57, THE $100,000 PYRAMID slipped 0.02 to 0.44, and THE FINAL STRAW was steady at 0.29. CBS:  BIG BROTHER jumped a tenth to 0.91.  The rest of the line-up had reruns at 0.42/0.22/0.23. NBC:  WHO DO […]

  EMPIRE’s place in the public eye thanks to recent news didn’t help its ratings. 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 […]

> 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 […]

The weekend still looks like a very good $132 million for the top 12 films, similar to the estimate yesterday.  Taken 2 opened well (ahead of the ShowbuzzDaily Weekend Prediction earlier this week) but probably will degrade quickly the next few weekends, while Hotel Transylvania and Looper are having decent sophomore weekends (each down only about […]

Weekend #41 of 2015 is looking like $112 million for the top 12 films this weekend, very close to the norm for this weekend but below last year’s strong weekend (see comparisons below). Pan from Warner Brothers should open with a $16.5 million weekend. The film is on track for around $70 million domestic. Overseas the film could bring in $210 […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #26 of 2013 looks like an okay $181 million for the top 12 films, even with or slightly down from the same weekend in recent years.  Not a bad weekend at all, just not the blistering pace of the last two weekends. Opening at 3,181 theaters Friday, The Heat from 20th Century Fox […]

Weekend #34 of 2015 is looking like $105 million for the top 12 films this weekend, above the norm for this weekend (see comparisons below). Sinister 2 from Focus/Universal should open with a $15.5 million three-day weekend. Early reviews at RottenTomatoes are not going encouraging: 0% positive overall so far (with fewer than 10 reviews counted at this time…but […]