NETWORK UPDATE:  RECKLESS was an even bigger flop in final numbers, losing 0.1 to a dismal 0.6.  WIPEOUT gained 0.2 to 1.2, but there was no increase for RISING STAR.  SATURDAY CABLE:  POWER (Starz) was steady at 0.4 for the combination of its 9PM and 10PM runs. SUNDAY CABLE:  THE LEFTOVERS (HBO) debuted with […]

  MONDAY UPDATE:  In the face of widespread industry skepticism, Paramount is sticking to its claim that TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION earned $100M last weekend–actually, $100,038, 390.  (The consensus is that the real number is $97-98M.)  Here’s the way the system works:  the vast majority of US theatres report their results to the 3rd-party company […]

The ratings below are household ratings from the 56 television markets with local Nielsen meters for Saturday June 28 and Sunday June 29, 2014. The 56 markets (out of 210 total) cover about 70% of the US television population.   Soccer: FIFA World Cup: The Knockout Round Begins Saturday 4.5 rating ABC 11:30 am Brazil […]

WORLDWIDE STUDIO SCORECARD.  Paramount got off the mat with the release of Transformers: Age of Extinction, pushing the studio over $1.0 billion worldwide for the year to date and into 5th place and now above Universal.  Disney ($1.66 billion worldwide for 2014 to date) moved slightly above Sony ($1.65 billion) thanks to continued overseas grosses […]

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, weekend #26 of 2014 now looks like $171 million for the top 12 films Friday-Sunday, very close to yesterday’s estimate ($172 million) and 10% below the norm for this weekend and 6% below the same weekend last year as the lackluster summer 2014 rolls on.   Opening at 4,233 […]

  The odds are strong that on Sunday morning, TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (Paramount) will claim a $100M weekend, the first of 2014–but we won’t really know until Monday whether the movie has hit that mark.  According to reports at Deadline and elsewhere, Transformers 4 fell sharply on Saturday from its $41.6M opening day, in the […]

  RECKLESS:  Sunday 9PM on CBS – If Nothing Else Is On… In the Charleston of CBS’s summer potboiler RECKLESS, it seems like just about everyone is sleeping with everyone else, or wants to.  That absurdly overheated quality is the most likable thing about what’s otherwise a fairly conventional legal procedural, which comes from a […]

  On Friday, the big alien robots blew things up. OPENINGS:  TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (Paramount) got the Friday it was hoping for, the biggest day of 2014 at $41.6M, and one that gives the blockbuster a strong (although not certain) chance to hit the magic $100M mark on Sunday.  In addition, Transformers 4 earned $52M […]