Author Archive
 

 

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL Day 4 Capsule Reviews: “Sing,” “Denial,” “Nocturnal Animals,” “Moonlight” & “Queen of Katwe”

  For this audience member, it was the day Toronto moved into high gear. MOONLIGHT (A24 – October 21):  Barry Jenkins’s second film, after his little-seen but much-praised Medicine For Melancholy, is a validat...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL Day 3 Capsule Reviews: A Monster Calls, Lion, The Bleeder, Colossal & Elle

  COLOSSAL (no distrib):  Well, you haven’t seen this take on sci-fi spectacles before.  In Nacho Vigalondo’s whatzit, party girl Gloria (Anne Hathaway) and her hometown friend Oscar (Jason Sudeikis) discover...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL Day 2 Capsule Reviews: “Snowden,” “American Pastoral” & “Carrie Pilby”

  SNOWDEN (Open Road – Sept 16):  Oliver Stone’s return to politically-charged biography is subdued by the standards of his Nixon or W.  It’s a hagiography that follows the character arc of his Born of ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL Day 1 Capsule Reviews: “The Magnificent 7″” & “Free Fire”

  THE MAGNIFICENT 7 (Village Roadshow/MGM/Columbia/Sony – Sept 23):  Cinema survived in 1960 when Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece The Seven Samurai was transformed into an American western, and it will survive th...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 9/4/16

  OPENINGS:  THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS (DreamWorks/Reliance/Participant/Disney) brings to an ignominious end the distribution relationship between DreamWorks and Disney.  Their final shared title disappointed on every lev...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Light Between Oceans,” “Morgan” Flop On Labor Day Weekend

  Although it’s possible for a horror or action movie to make some money over Labor Day weekend, no studio opens a movie it cares about for the holiday that repels moviegoers.  This weekend’s openings won̵...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY THURSDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 9.1.2016

NOTE: Each network’s fast affilliate-based numbers below will come down in the official nationals later today because of many local pre-emptions for NFL Preseason games.  Last night, 15 games were played, involving 30 te...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

The Sked: Wednesday Ratings 8.31.2016

  AMERICA’S GOT TALENT continued to hold the nation’s eyes. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demographics (adult 18-34, 18-4...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “You’re the Worst”

  YOU’RE THE WORST:  Wednesday 10PM on FXX Acrid TV comedy is no longer a surprise–in fact, on cable and streaming services, it’s more the rule than the exception.  What makes Stephen Falk’s YOU&#...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Dead of Summer”

  TV’s summer of 2016 was notable for a splendidly entertaining and emotionally satisfying 1980s-themed horror thriller.  Unfortunately for Freeform and DEAD OF SUMMER, it was Netflix’s Stranger Things.  Dead...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 8.28.2016

  More preseason football. 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 1...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Finale Review: “The Night Of”

  Last year, the cop novel “The Whites” was published as the work of Harry Brandt–except that “Harry Brandt” was actually a pseudonym for Richard Price.  This seemed odd at first, because unl...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Roadies”

  In recent years, Cameron Crowe has had trouble keeping his scripts coherent even when they only have to last 2 hours.  It probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that giving him 10 hours to play with was asking...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Premiere Review: “The Strain”

  THE STRAIN:  Sunday 10PM on FX FX’s goofiest drama, THE STRAIN, is back for its third season, long-tongued vampiric monsters and Eastern European mythology intact.  Season 2 may have been less notable for killing...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 8/28/16

  OPENINGS:  DON’T BREATHE (Screen Gems/Sony) had an unusually strong Saturday for a horror movie, down just 1% from Friday (which, remember, these days includes Thursday night).  By way of comparison, Lights Out f...
by Mitch Salem