Author Archive
 

 

THURSDAY NIGHT BOX OFFICE: A Lot of Silence

  All four of this weekend’s wide releases began with Thursday night screenings last night, but only KICK-ASS 2 (Universal) reported the results.  Kick Ass 2 started with a $1.3M Thursday (screenings started at 8PM)...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “The Butler” Serves “Kick-Ass 2″” and The Rest

  If preliminary numbers at Deadline hold, what was supposed to be a fairly competitive box office weekend will instead be a romp for THE BUTLER (Weinstein).  It’s claiming a $9M Friday, which should give it at leas...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

BEHIND THE FRIDAY BOX OFFICE – 8/16/13

  OPENINGS:  Comparisons between THE BUTLER (Weinstein) and The Help 2 years ago are somewhat skewed by the fact that Help opened on a Wednesday, so it had already earned $9.9M before its $26M weekend.  Nevertheless, an...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “The White Queen”

  THE WHITE QUEEN:  Saturday 9PM on Starz Previously… on THE WHITE QUEEN:  Lady Elizabeth Woodville (Rebecca Ferguson) was a widow with two children who captured the lust, and then the heart, of England’s Kin...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

EARLY WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: “The Butler” Stays In Charge

  Preliminary figures at Deadline give THE BUTLER (Weinstein) a commanding victory over its competition.  Very impressively, on Saturday Butler reportedly increased its take by about 10% over Friday, putting it on target ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

BEHIND THE WEEKEND BOX OFFICE – 8/18/13

  OPENINGS:  If a movie like THE BUTLER (Weinstein) can make back most of its production cost in a single weekend (and The Help did the same 2 years ago), why aren’t there more movies like The Butler?  The answer i...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Pilot + 1 Review: “Low Winter Sun”

  LOW WINTER SUN:  Sunday 10PM on AMC Previously… on LOW WINTER SUN:  Detroit Detective Frank Agnew (Mark Strong), along with fellow Detective Joe Geddes (Lennie James), have murdered Geddes’s partner, a thir...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “True Blood”

  This was, for the most part, a solid rebuilding season for TRUE BLOOD.  The show survived a replacement in showrunners when series creator Alan Ball stepped down after 5 years–and then a replacement of that replac...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED’S SUNDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 8/18/13

  The really interesting numbers last night are likely to be on cable, with the roaring Breaking Bad airing against the season finale of True Blood. FOX:  NFL PRESEASON FOOTBALL (Indianapolis at NY Giants) scored a prelim...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Major Crimes”

  TNT’s MAJOR CRIMES, like its predecessor The Closer, belongs to the “procedural-plus” subgenre, with a crime to be solved every week combined with a secondary amount of continuing serialized plot.  Ho...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED’S MONDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 8/19/13

  The storyline on Under the Dome may be getting increasingly wacky, but viewers are hanging in. CBS:  UNDER THE DOME held even at 2.4, tying its series low, but still towering over everything else that aired last night.�...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED’S SAT-MON CABLE SCORECARD: 8/17-19

  SATURDAY STARZ:  Starz would be pleased if THE WHITE QUEEN can continue where it landed with its second episode.  Although its 800K total viewers and 0.3 in 18-49s were below the total of the many airings Starz and its...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY FILM REVIEW: “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”

  THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES –  Not Even For Free –  An Incoherent Compendium of YA Tropes THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES isn’t so much a movie as it is a mash-up.  They’re all ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED’S TUESDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 8/20/13

  A quiet night on the networks. NBC:  AMERICA’S GOT TALENT was easily the highest rated show of the night, but its 2.2 was its lowest rated Tuesday airing ever, down 0.2 from last week and 0.3 from the parallel nig...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED SEASON FINALE REVIEW: “Necessary Roughness”

  The renovations on Season 3 of NECESSARY ROUGHNESS worked out quite well.  The series jettisoned its original setting and much of its supporting cast, moving Dr. Dani Santino (Callie Thorne) from her job as in-house the...
by Mitch Salem