BACKSTROM:  Midseason TBD on FOX THE FACTS:  Rainn Wilson plays your basic difficult-but-brilliant homicide detective in a procedural based on a series of Swedish mystery novels, adapted for television by Hart Hanson, the creator of Bones.  Backstrom is grumpy and dismissive of his colleagues, and unhealthy in his eating, drinking and general living habits, […]

> The odds, finally, were not in The Hunger Games‘ favor. OPENINGS:  America continues to want to spend its leisure time (and money) at the movies.  THINK LIKE A MAN (Screen Game/Sony) cost under $15M to produce, and while that doesn’t include the comparatively large marketing expenses, it’s still nice to make back almost your […]

  GODZILLA (Warners/Legendary) is more or less the definition of a movie that should have a great first night, and indeed it did on Thursday, pulling in $9.3M in shows that started at 7PM.  That’s more than the $8.7M for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and not far off the pace of Captain America: The Winter […]

> Some shows, believe it or not, are too low-rated even for NBC.  BEST FRIENDS FOREVER has exhausted its single joke (the strain caused on star/co-creator Lennon’s live-in relationship when neurotic, boundaryless pal/co-creator Jessica comes to stay) and been yanked off the network’s Wednesday night schedule.  If its remaining episodes are to be seen on […]

  WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Here is an updated look at the 2019 film slates by studio. BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2019 is still -5% below last year’s comparable span and still basically even with this point the past four years ($7.601 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #21 of 2014 now looks like $179 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, well below our $205 million forecast and down 28% from the same weekend last year (but still up 6% from the norm for this weekend over the last few years).  Basically, the two openers […]

> The lows keep coming. ABC:  MODERN FAMILY, THE MIDDLE, SUBURGATORY and REVENGE all set or tied season lows last night, and the only reason DON’T TRUST THE B— IN APT 23 didn’t was because it had aired the previous week after a Modern Family rerun.  The 8PM hour, in particular, is starting to look […]

Based on Friday’s grosses, weekend #23 of 2014 looks like $165 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, 10% above the norm for this weekend and 15% above the same weekend last year.   Opening at 3,173 theaters, The Fault in Our Stars from 20th Century Fox grossed $26.1 million through Friday, putting the film on track […]