Although there were some new faces due to release patterns and category differences, in the big picture, the BAFTAs–Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars–turned out to be very much like the Golden Globes.  The full list of winners is here, but the headline is that 12 YEARS A SLAVE managed once again to win Best […]

BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  STATION 19 was steady at 0.45, GREY’S ANATOMY gained 0.05 to 0.48, and the season finale of ALASKA DAILY was down 0.02 to 0.19. CBS:  Back from a 2-week break, YOUNG SHELDON dropped a tenth to 0.58, GHOSTS lost 0.06 to 0.55, SO HELP ME TODD dipped 0.03 to 0.31, and CSI: […]

> There are good movies and there are hits, and given the choice, there’s never been any doubt which Hollywood prefers. OPENINGS:  A March filled to the brim with wannabe blockbusters is off to a big start.  THE LORAX (Universal) may be a bad movie (spoiler alert–it is), but the studio sold the hell out […]

  The votes are in, and all that’s left is the counting.  The Calendar section of the LA Times has returned to normal size, the pop-up website ads have subsided, the screenings and Q&As have finished, and the talent can take one deep breath before heading into the frenzy of this coming weekend.  In these […]

  OPENINGS:  EVIL DEAD RISE (Warners) modestly exceeded expectations with $23.5M, although that was still below the franchise’s last reboot in 2013 at $25.8M (which only reached a $54.2M total in the US and didn’t spawn a sequel).  Horror has become the most dependable genre in Hollywood, and Evil Dead Rise is the only one […]

>Back to a first place tie on Thursday between CBS (with mostly original episodes this week) and FOX (with Idol down to a one-hour edition) followed by The Finder.  You will notice we do not have year-to-year comparisons for this night.  Two very helpful readers identified a problem with recent year-ago comparisons, and it is […]

  It’s too soon to tell just how GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS (Legendary/Warners) will fare based on its $19.7M opening day (including $6.3M from Thursday), per preliminary numbers at Deadline.  The reason is that the two previous installments of what Warners calls its “Monsterverse” have had strikingly divergent trajectories at the US box office.  […]

  No one expected 300: RISE OF AN EMPIRE (Warners/Legendary) to equal the giant start of its predecessor, after 7 years and with most of the cast gone–and it won’t.  But based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, the spin-off is launching well, with a $17M Friday (which includes $3.3M from Thursday night) that should mean […]