Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #22 of 2014 now looks like $161 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 18% above the norm for this weekend now matching the same weekend last year.   Opening at 3,948 theaters, Maleficent from Disney grossed $24.2 million late Thursday/Friday and $25.6 million Saturday, now putting the film on track […]

      Analysis to follow.   NETWORK FINALS:  There were no changes from the morning preliminary numbers.       Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  It was ESPN’s night at the top of Monday cable with its Cleveland vs. Toronto NBA PLAYOFFS game at 2.48.  On VH1, LOVE & […]

> This weekend is looking unusually strong for late September: the top 12 films should gross over $100 million, about 14% above a normal weekend this time of year.  The strong 3D reissue of The Lion King should remain at #1 with close to $20 million and a very family-friendly, small second weekend decline.  Challenging […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL adjusted to 3.9, steady with last week’s game.         Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  NFL Network’s share of THURSDAY  NIGHT FOOTBALL was at 0.78, up 0.07 from last week.  MTV’s JERSEY SHORE was at 0.44/0.40 compared to last […]

  American Idol‘s woes continued last night.  (So did everyone else’s.) FOX:  On a year-to-year basis, Thursday’s plunge for AMERICAN IDOL was even worse than Wednesday’s, down an awful 1.7 from last season’s 2d night to 3.9.  There seems to be a real chance that this will be the first season Idol has sub-3 numbers […]

  The odds are strong that on Sunday morning, TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (Paramount) will claim a $100M weekend, the first of 2014–but we won’t really know until Monday whether the movie has hit that mark.  According to reports at Deadline and elsewhere, Transformers 4 fell sharply on Saturday from its $41.6M opening day, in the […]

  SHADES OF BLUE went quite a bit darker last night. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary 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 2). […]

NBC changed format a bit Sunday night and aired Michael Phelps: America’s Golden Champion from 7-8 pm, followed by traditional Olympic coverage from 8 pm-midnight, including the men’s 100M dash, gymnastics individual apparatus finals, and beach volleyball.  The night started slowly, as it usually does, with a 5.5 Adult 18-49 rating in the 7:00 half hour, building […]