OPENINGS:  SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO (Black Label/Columbia/Sony) had a modest $19M start, which was better than the first Sicario‘s $12.1M (in October, after 2 weeks of limited release), but perhaps not by enough to justify the pricetag of opening in the crowded summer marketplace.  (Note that the risk here is Black Label’s, since […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #23 of 2013 looks like an okay $152 million for the top 12 films (very similar to yesterday’s estimate), down 13% from last year but 4% above the average for this weekend the past few years.  The Purge is doing much better than forecast and is propping the […]

  BROADCAST FINALS:  As usual on fall Saturdays, COLLEGE FOOTBALL was dominant with 1.16 for ABC’s primetime game, while FOX’s MLB game was at 0.25.   Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  COLLEGE FOOTBALL again, with ESPN’s games at 0.85/0.52/0.43, Fox Sports 1’s at 0.42/0.16/0.15, Big Ten’s gamex at 0.26/0.12, and […]

> Deadline has updated early Friday numbers, and it’s looking like another too-close-to-call weekend:  all the movies in the Top 5–MONEYBALL, THE LION KING, DOLPHIN TALE, COURAGEOUS and 50/50–have Friday grosses between $3.2-3.8M.  Courageous is probably the most front-loaded, due to its focused church-based audience (although it’s per-theatre number will be very impressive), and while […]

  The Season 6 premiere of HBO’s TRUE BLOOD wasn’t quite as hearty as last year’s launch, with 4.5M total viewers for the initial broadcast (demo details aren’t available yet, although it should be around a 2.5 in 18-49s), compared to 5.2M last season, plus another 1.1M viewers for the 11PM rebroadcast.  That’s below last […]

  BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  DANCING WITH THE STARS rose 0.08 to 0.77.  The REAL QUEENS OF HIP-HOP special was at 0.35. CBS:  THE NEIGHBORHOOD gained 0.05 to 0.67, and BOB HEARTS ABISHOLA was steady at 0.53.  NCIS and NCIS: HAWAII were each up 0.06, respectively to 0.62/0.48. NBC:  THE VOICE fell 0.16 to 0.76, and […]

> AMERICAN HORROR STORY – Wednesdays 10PM on FX – Potential DVR Alert The first inkling of just how deranged AMERICAN HORROR STORY is going to be comes with one of the early “normal” scenes.  The location isn’t the haunted house, so we’re away from the girl with Down’s Syndrome who tells people they’re going […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, Weekend #26 of 2013 looks like an okay $181 million for the top 12 films, even with or slightly down from the same weekend in recent years.  Not a bad weekend at all, just not the blistering pace of the last two weekends. Opening at 3,181 theaters Friday, The Heat from 20th Century Fox […]