Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #3 of 2014 now looks like $160 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, even better than it looked yesterday and now 47% above the average for the comparable weekend the past few years. Opening at 2,663 theaters Friday, Ride Along from Universal grossed $14.5 million Friday and $16.7 million Saturday, […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  The season premiere of THE BACHELOR was at 0.65, down 0.19 from last season’s premiere.  THE GOOD DOCTOR aired for the first time since December 12, up 0.02 to 0.32. CBS:  THE NEIGHBORHOOD jumped 0.26 to 0.66, BOB HEARTS ABISHOLA rose two-tenths to 0.54, NCIS climbed 0.21 to 0.54, and NCIS: […]

>As we have discussed, the jury is still out on Smash.  We don’t know where its ratings will settle, as it gives up over half of its massive lead in from The Voice, it was down sharply in its second week versus the premiere, and it declines each half hour it is on (often declining […]

  A good night for some veteran shows. CBS:  UNDERCOVER BOSS started things off nicely, up 0.1 to 1.7, and the momentum continued, as HAWAII 5-0 and BLUE BLOODS both rose 0.2, to 1.7 and 1.6 respectively. ABC:  LAST MAN STANDING tied its best outing of the season,  up 0.1 to 1.5, and THE NEIGHBORS […]

  OPENINGS:  MAGIC MIKE’S LAST DANCE (Warners) was produced as an HBO Max original, and then the new Warners ownership decided to give it a mid-level theatrical release in 1500 theaters.  The result was an $8.2M weekend, considerably below the $12.9M launch of Magic Mike XXL in 2015 (at 3355 theaters).  XXL had a leggy […]

> VENUS IN FUR exists, at this point in its Broadway life, as two overlapping but not identical entities:  it’s a deft new play by David Ives, but also, and more prominently, it’s become the Star-Is-Born vehicle for its lead actress, Nina Arianda, who’s currently giving about as dazzling a performance as you’re likely to […]

  The only faint sign of ratings life came from the US OLYMPIC TRIALS. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary 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 […]

  We’re 3 days into the 18 of the WINTER OLYMPICS, and the games are already paying ratings dividends for NBC.  (However, it’s critical to note that the Olympics are like the NFL, only more so:  the rights and production costs are so massively expensive that high ratings don’t necessarily mean profits–and even slight underperformance […]