THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, the 600-pound gorilla of the holiday movie box office season (The Hobbit 2 is by comparison a smaller simian, at least in the US) opens tonight, and the question is just how big it will be.  The first Hunger Games opened in March 2012 and had the 6th biggest […]

  The Saturday boxoffice news was better for some titles than others.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, TAKEN 2 (20th) held about even on Saturday, which is reasonable for an action-movie sequel.  Recent comparisons:  The Bourne Legacy had a 4% bump on its 2d day of release, while The Expendables 2 dropped 3%.  If […]

  PROJECT X:  Not Even For Free – Don’t RSVP   How is it that no one has yet produced a 3D found-footage movie?  You’d think the combination of the most (usually) mind-numbing gimmicks of the past decade would be a commercially sure bet, but so far it’s an untapped market. Meanwhile we have PROJECT […]

  Very little change from last week. 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 of 2). Ratings analysis and comparisons follow […]

> With its schedule in the #1 position and no new shows to launch, CBS had plenty of time to maintain its current schedule and celebrate the 60th anniversary of the CBS Eye logo throughout the night with brief montages of The Eye over the years (similar to the Peacock transformation montages NBC aired back […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:   CELEBRITY FAMILY FEUD and BIG BROTHER each gained 0.1 in final numbers, as did the reruns of CSI and BOB’S BURGERS, but the rerun of MADAM SECRETARY fell by 0.2, and GOLAN THE INSATIABLE lost 0.1.  CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  The BET AWARDS were the night’s big winner, with 2.64 for the awards show itself, […]

  It’s looking like a slow weekend at the box office, although the successive arrivals of Divergent, Noah and Captain America 2 over the next 3 weeks should keep it from becoming a trend. Based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, NEED FOR SPEED (DreamWorks/Disney) probably won’t even reach $20M for the weekend.  Its reported $6.5M […]

      NETWORK FINALS:  ABC’s Alabama vs. USC game adjusted up 0.1 to 2.5 in final numbers.          Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE ORIGINALS:  COLLEGE FOOTBALL dominated Saturday cable, with games and related programming occupying 11 of the Top 12 slots.  (ESPN alone had 10 of those, […]