Andrew Bujalski’s COMPUTER CHESS has a great setting for a comedy.  The time is circa 1980, and the place is an anonymous hotel where a group of nerds–back before nerds were cool–have gathered for their yearly conference and contest among the computer programs they create to enable their machines to play chess with increasing […]

  PITCH PERFECT 2 (Gold Circle/Universal) is shaping up as one of the best investments of the summer season, with an opening day estimated by Deadline at $27M (including $4.6M from Thursday night)–almost equal to its entire production cost.  Pitch 2 may be frontloaded, as movies aimed at young women often are, but even so, […]

  Storms be damned:  according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, despite (or because of) the snows on the East Coast, Saturday was a very healthy day at the multiplexes.  Far from taking a Day 2 hit, IDENTITY THIEF (Universal) had a 33% Saturday bump comparable to the 2d day track of Bridesmaids, and now looks […]

  OPENINGS:  There was a barely-wide opening for OUR FRIEND (Gravitas, also on VOD) at 543 theatres with a $250K weekend that translated into a quiet per-theatre average of $460. HOLDOVERS:  THE MARKSMAN (Open Road) dipped 35% in its 2nd weekend to $2M (by comparison,  Liam Neeson’s prior vehicle Honest Thief dropped 43% in Weekend […]

> It’s not looking good for Team Metcalf, which is about $160 million behind Team Salem in the first annual ShowBuzzDaily Summer Movie Draft.  And it’s not going to get any better this weekend.  Even if Salem’s Green Lantern does not light the world on fire, Metcalf’s Mr Popper’s Penguins will do worse.  If Metcalf […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2017 film slates by studio, including early 2018 dollars for films released later in 2017. We will start tracking the 2018 studio slates in a few weeks. YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2018 to date is now +7% above last […]

The AUDIENCE MAP series continues with a look back at the complete 2014-2015 television season.  FOX’s primetime lineup is shown below.  As a reminder, the programs are arranged by broadcast schedule, with each show placed on the night it spent most of the season.  The audience share for each of 30 gender-age subgroups is noted for […]

  Almost anyone could win Best Supporting Actor this year.  All of the nominees delivered acclaimed performances in highly-praised films, and all are previous winners, so none of them would necessarily take precedence as someone who’s “owed.”  It’s possible to construct plausible cases for and against each one: Tommy Lee Jones, LINCOLN Pros:  Jones is […]