No studio dared to challenge OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (Disney) in any meaningful way on its second weekend, and Sam Raimi’s extravaganza will romp to another weekend win–but that’s not to say it’s doing so with particularly impressive numbers.  Based on preliminary estimates at Deadline, Oz will have an $11M Friday, which would […]

The Voice sings sweetly for NBC, NBC:  To the great relief of NBC, THE VOICE returned with a 4.7 rating, higher than the show’s fall average and just slightly below the highest rating of its fall cycle.  (It was, however, somewhat below the numbers for spring 2012.)   REVOLUTION may be more problematic.  Although its 2.7 rating was solid, […]

> See A Word About Busted Pilots If it’s a procedural, this must be CBS.  HAIL MARY was one of the pilots that had initial buzz around town, and it boasted a casting coup with Minnie Driver in the lead (her first network show after doing The Riches for FX), but it’s not hard to […]

  Hannibal doesn’t have much of an appetite.   NBC:  The positive spin on HANNIBAL‘s 1.6 debut is that it’s better than NBC has done in that awful timeslot in roughly a year, and a considerable boost from its lead-in.  Nevertheless, a 1.6, mired in last place for the hour, is hardly anything to celebrate, […]

>Three films are now in or projected to be in the $1 billion worldwide box office club: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.  Clearly, movies with long titles (not surprisngly blockbuster sequels) are being rewarded and embraced around the world.  The […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is now +8% above last year and still +5% above the average for this point the past four years ($5.560 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed almost $15.2 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s now […]

  It was almost like football season last night, with a sports overrun claiming Sunday’s biggest rating by far. CBS:  Per Mitch Metcalf:  “The Masters over-run into CBS prime time last night (including two sudden-death playoff holes) averaged a 4.1 fast national rating with adults 18-49, which we are adjusting up to 4.7 to reflect […]

>Debuting at #21 (just off the chart below), Rise of the Planet of the Apes has a projected total domestic gross of $155 million and an overseas gross to date of $23 million, as it opens slowly around the world.  But that overseas number will pick up and probably go to $200-250 million, putting Rise […]