OPENINGS:  The $40M weekend estimate for THE HEAT (20th) makes more sense than it did last night, now that the movie’s Saturday is being reported as a 6% increase rather than a 5% drop.  (But always be suspicious of round-number estimates anyway.)  The Heat is going to be profitable, thanks to its $45M production budget, […]

  BROADCAST FINALS:  ABC’s COLLEGE FOOTBALL game led primetime at 0.70, but afternoon games at 1.17 (ABC)/0.90 (FOX) were higher.  NBC’s SNL was up 0.09 to 0.97.  CW’s originals were at 0.10/0.09.   Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart   CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  ESPN’s COLLEGE FOOTBALL games led the cable day at 0.98/0.57/0.44, with games on […]

> Baseball threw FOX–sorry–a curveball, but there was plenty of bad news for everyone last night. FOX:  Since the playoff game lasted until 8:52PM eastern time, it isn’t clear why FOX didn’t just fill in the 8 minutes left in the hour and go straight to House at 9PM.  But for whatever reason, they ran […]

A very quiet week on broadcast and cable, as usual for the week featuring Independence Day.  

  BROADCAST FINALS:  It was Conference Championship day in COLLEGE FOOTBALL, so ABC, CBS and FOX all featured games, topped by CBS’s SEC CHAMPIONSHIP at 3.62.    Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart   CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  With the big games on the broadcast networks, it was a low night on cable, with the highest college […]

>Friday patterns are really set in stone.  CBS won another Friday with a 1.6 rating (same as last week) with three pricey scripted dramas:  A Gifted Man (1.3 rating, up 0.1 from last week), CSI: NY (1.7, up 0.1) and Blue Bloods (1.7, down 0.2). FOX was #2 on the night with a 1.3 rating (down […]

  The lack of strong new competition is certainly helping, as is the Wednesday opening that kept last Friday down a bit, but nevertheless, the Weekend 2 hold for CRAZY RICH ASIANS (SK Global/Warners) is on track to be extraordinary.  Preliminary numbers at Deadline have a 4% Friday-to-Friday drop to $7M, which would give it […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is still +4% above last year and now +1% above the average for this point the past four years ($8.615 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed $23.1 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s still +6% […]