BREAKING BAD kicked off its 5th season in fine style for AMC last night, recording the show’s most-watched episode (2.9M viewers, up 14% from the Season 4 premiere), and what should be a 1.4 in the 18-49 demo, a whopping 34% year-to-year increase (2/3 of its viewers were under 50).  That means the show […]

  Belying its title, DUMB AND DUMBER TO (Red Granite/Universal) picked a strategically smart weekend to debut, facing very little fresh competition (because of last weekend’s Big Hero 6/Interstellar double bill and next week’s The Hunger Games installment) and even less comedy.  The result was a strong $13.9M Friday (including $1.6M from Thursday night) according […]

    The Toronto Film Festival is on its way, and SHOWBUZZDAILY will be there.  The Festival, which runs Sept 6-16, today announced the bulk of its highest-profile titles, those that will screen in the Gala and Special Presentation categories.  Here, at a first glance, are some of the most promising: GALAS ARGO:  Against the […]

  Between football preemptions and live coverage of the events in Ferguson, last night’s ratings are subject to a great deal of adjustment this afternoon, and even then may not be very relevant in terms of regular-season standings. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demographics (adult […]

Last night’s coverage of the fifth night of the London Summer Olympics averaged a 12.2 rating with Adults 18-49 on NBC in prime time.  The highlights of the night were the team competition for women’s gymnastics and Michael Phelps winning another gold (and breaking the all-time record for most Olympic medals).  Almost all of the […]

Last night in prime time, NBC averaged a preliminary 5.0 from 8-11 pm with Adults 18-49 from 8-11 pm.   The network has often thrown the 8 pm hour out of the nightly average (by delaying national commercials until 9:00).  If 8 pm is excluded, Saturday’s Olympic rating will be around a 6.0 — just […]

  OPENINGS:  The big box office news of this weekend happened overseas, where THE HOBBIT:  THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES (New Line/MGM/Warners) has already opened in 37 territories to a massive $117.6M in advance of its US launch next week.  The Hobbit movies have done overwhelmingly well overseas, with the previous installments earning respectively […]

In the battle for second place in the ShowbuzzDaily Summer Movie Draft, very little changed the past week.  Team Weil’s slate tacked on $41.6 million the past seven days, while Team Salem added $40.9 million.  Weil remains $69 million ahead of Salem ($1.004 billion to $935 million for the entire summer). In the next week […]