> AMERICAN IDOL‘s best days are behind it. FOX:  Idol gave FOX an easy win for the night, but it continues to be 30% below last season, and last night dipped 0.3 from its first Thursday.  It appears as though the show didn’t even win the time-slot for its first half-hour, falling behind BIG BANG […]

>What an ugly night Tuesday has become.  Between the Daylight Saving Time effect early in the evening, a bumper crop of repeats, mid-season shows that are going nowhere, and a million other options (including streaming, DVR playback, local sports, and for the lucky audience in LA: freeway police chases on KCAL), no broadcast network last […]

  THE MEG (Gravity/Warners) appears to be having the opposite box office experience from what we’ve come to associate with US/China action movies.  In the US, it’s overperforming, perhaps helped by a calendar slot a week after Discovery’s yearly Shark Week:  preliminary numbers at Deadline estimate opening day at $16.5M ($4M from Thursday night), which […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.   YEAR TO DATE BOX OFFICE. Looking at North American box office, 2015 to date is still +6% above last year and still +2% above the average for this point the past four years ($7.173 billion).  Over the same period, Hollywood films have grossed just under $19.1 billion worldwide when we add overseas box office (that’s […]

> BREAKING DAWN PART 1: After a full week of running behind New Moon on a day-to-day basis, often by more than $1M per day, Summit’s estimates for the past 2 days suddenly have Breaking Dawn 1 ahead by a few thousand dollars. These are among several numbers that may change when Actuals are released […]

  The conventions are over, and TV’s summer Fridays are as dull as ever. 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 […]

> Deadline is reporting that Saturday’s boxoffice for THE HUNGER GAMES is heading for $50M.  This is obviously a very preliminary figure–some late night west coast shows haven’t even started yet, much less been reported back to the studio.  But if the number holds, it would mean that Hunger Games is an even more phenomenal […]

  NETWORK UPDATE:  SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL adjusted to 8.4 in final numbers, up 0.2 from last week (which faced the World Series).  Post-football adjustment, 60 MINUTES lost 0.4, and MADAM SECRETARY dipped 0.1.  In addition, FAMILY GUY and ONCE UPON A TIME each gained 0.1. Broadcast Official Nationals Program Ratings Chart     CABLE HIGHLIGHTS:  […]