Weekend #35 of 2014 is looking like $95 million for the top 12 films this weekend, up 11% from the norm for this weekend and on track to be the fifth up weekend in a row after six straight down weekends. Opening at around 2,500 theaters Friday (below the 2,886 average theater count for opening […]

    THE IDES OF MARCH:  Watch It At Home – An Excellent Play Becomes a Merely Good Movie   The Ides of March, one of the most eagerly awaited of this year’s festival crop, is more entertaining than it is good. Oddly both low-key and melodramatic, claptrap and high-minded drama, it represents a series […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  The studio rankings remain unchanged, and the most noteworthy change is that Universal now boasts a film in the $300+ million worldwide box (Lucy with $126 million domestic and $192 million overseas to date).  But the success of Lucy cannot make up for an excess of clunkers, as Universal is showing a hit-to-miss ratio even […]

      CONTRABAND:  Worth A Ticket – Working-Class Thriller   CONTRABAND is a B movie, but oddly enough, that’s one thing in short supply these days.  Action movies in modern Hollywood usually come with giant CG-laden budgets, or with a Drive-like overweening sense of self-importance.  A modest picture that simply wants to entertain for […]

  It was political wrestling over the physical kind. 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 over the age of 2). Ratings […]

  The first big volleys of the Fall TV season were… inconclusive. NBC:  The network would be delighted if MYSTERIES OF LAURA could duplicate last night’s 2.1 rating when it airs in its regular timeslot.  On the face of it, the show did a solid job of retaining its 2.3 lead-in from the season finale […]

  WRATH OF THE TITANS:  Watch It At Home – Put Back the Kraken   The producers of WRATH OF THE TITANS swore that this time the 3D would be better than it was in 2010’s Clash of the Titans, and you know what… it is.  That’s not saying an enormous amount, since the 3D […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #39 of 2014 looks like $99 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 5% above the norm for this weekend ($95 million) and just a shade under yesterday’s estimate ($100 million). Opening at 3,236 theaters, The Equalizer from Sony grossed $12.6 million Friday and $13.6 million Saturday, now […]