> VEEP, properly enough, was #2 on HBO’s Sunday ticket. HBO:  VEEP premiered with a fairly strong 0.6 in 18-49s on its initial Sunday airing, plus another .14 for its repeat later that night (remember, HBO ratings reflect only 25% of US households, so they’re 4x as strong as they look).  That was, not unexpectedly, […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  THE MAYA RUDOLPH SHOW didn’t start until 10:01PM, so it went down 0.1 while THE VOICE gained that much.  In terms of the future viability of a regular Maya Rudolph series (the special was more or less a pilot for one), it’s not a good sign that the show started with a […]

>With four nights of the May Sweep in (Thursday’s official ratings and Friday-Sunday’s fast national ratings), here’s an early look at the final major ratings sweep period of the broadcast season, when ratings are measured locally in each of the 214 television markets across the country.  Sunday night was very cruel to CBS and especially […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #22 of 2014 looks like $159 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 16% above the norm for this weekend but -1% from last year.   Opening at 3,948 theaters, Maleficent from Disney grossed $24.2 million Friday and late Thursday, putting the film on track for a $71.0 million opening three-day weekend (well […]

> Well-played, Marvel/Disney. THE AVENGERS:  Years of planning and marketing led to the 2d biggest opening day of all time, $80.5M, that was behind only Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 and its $91.1M.  (And Deathly Hallows 2 was far more front-loaded with Thursday midnight money, $43.5M compared to Avengers’ $18.7M.)  Now, the […]

Weekend #24 of 2014 is looking like a very sturdy $201 million for the top 12 films this weekend, 31% above the norm for this weekend and 2% above the same weekend last year. Opening at over 4,100 theaters Friday (well above the 2,886 average theater count for opening weekends the last two years), How to Train Your […]

  Network regimes come and go, ratings rise and (recently) fall, but one thing has been consistent at NBC for almost a quarter-century:  the presence of producer Dick Wolf and his LAW & ORDER franchise.  Hard times have come to L&O, and what was once a powerhouse triple-feature for the network is now just SVU, […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #25 of 2014 looks like $143 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, very close to yesterday’s estimate for the weekend ($144 million) and now 12% below the norm for this weekend and a big 39% below the same very successful weekend last year.   Opening at 2,225 […]