Author Archive
 

 

THE SKED’S TUESDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 11/29/11

> America knows what it wants this holiday season:  a flying middle-aged reindeer and lots of lingerie models! CBS:  RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER first aired (on NBC) in 1964, and 47 years later, it’s still go...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Doubt”

  DOUBT:  Wednesday 10PM on CBS – If Nothing Else Is On… As highly prized as the talents of Shonda Rhimes are, it takes the continuing line of her failed imitators to remind us just how difficult it is to dupl...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 8.18.2024

  OPENINGS:  ALIEN: ROMULUS (20th/Disney) became the latest franchise product to hit big this summer, arriving at the high end of expectations with $41.5M.  That was higher than 2017’s Alien: Covenant ($36.2M), alt...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED Season Finale Review: “Cougar Town”

  After five seasons, COUGAR TOWN has run through multiple networks (TBS, after ABC) and showrunners (Blake McCormick, following series creators Bill Lawrence and Kevin Biegel, and then Ric Swartzlander), and it’s ac...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED: A Word About Put Pilots

> The network development season for shows that would go to series in 2012-13 is in full gear, and that means an avalanche of press releases and trade reports that describe many of the deals as “put pilots.”  I...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 8/9/15

  OPENINGS:  As expected, FANTASTIC FOUR (20th) plunged 25% on Saturday as word of mouth caught up with it (by comparison, Ant-Man lost just 14% on its 2d day of release), giving it a sad $26.2M weekend.  Things didnR...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “The Red Line”

  THE RED LINE:  Sunday 8PM on CBS CBS waited until the final few weeks of the regular broadcast season to do something very un-CBS:  over the next 4 Sundays, it will air all 8 hours of the limited series THE RED LINE, a...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW: “Third Person”

  There is a reason, or at least an argument, for why almost everything in Paul Haggis’s THIRD PERSON feels synthetic and contrived–but I can’t make it here, because doing so would expose the film’...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “The Sleepwalker”

  For SHOWBUZZDAILY’s full set of Sundance capsule reviews, click here.   What kind of filmmaker does Mona Fastvold want to be?  It’s an existential question that comes up often at Sundance, where artisti...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Minority Report”

  MINORITY REPORT:  Monday 9PM on FOX – If Nothing Else Is On… It’s not unusual for a sci-fi/fantasy or action-adventure pilot to boast a far more generous budget than the amount allotted to ordinary ser...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY’s Thursday 10.13.2022 Top 150 Cable Originals & Network Finals with NFL TNF UPDATED

[NFL Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video added to chart below]   BROADCAST FINALS ABC:  STATION 19 gained 0.02 to 0.53, GREY’S ANATOMY slipped 0.02 to 0.53, and ALASKA DAILY was down 0.06 to 0.26. CBS:  Y...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

LIMITED RELEASES: “Queen to Play,” “Ceremony” and “Meet Monica Velour”

> Today, 3 films from first-time directors: Caroline Bottaro’s marvelous QUEEN TO PLAY is, in a sense, a sports movie.  We have the out-of-nowhere player whose newly-discovered talent shakes up her whole life, the wi...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Boxoffice Footnotes – 4/22/11

>Among Tyler Perry movies that feature his Madea character, BIG HAPPY FAMILY is looking relatively weak, but it may have a big Easter Sunday. Other pictures likely to benefit from family crowds include RIO, HOP and SOUL SU...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Toronto Film Festival Reviews: “The Burial,” “Wildcat” & “Poolman”

  THE BURIAL (MGM/Amazon – Oct. 13):  A yarn that’s also a true story.  Jeremiah O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) was the owner of a family-run, regional Mississippi business that for decades had offered funer...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

OSCARLAND: Directors Guild Puts “Gravity” Into Orbit

  The Directors Guild of America tonight gave its prize for best film direction to Alfonso Cuaron and GRAVITY. This was not an unexpected result, but it solidifies the sense that this year we have what is (at least) a thr...
by Mitch Salem