Author Archive
 

 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Split” On Top, Shyamalan’s Return Beats “XXX” and Xander Cage

  After years in the wilderness, M. Night Shyamalan returned to profitability with last year’s The Visit, and based on preliminary numbers at Deadline, SPLIT (Blumhouse/Universal) will build on that success.  Openin...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Novitiate,” “The Incredible Jessica James” & “Marjorie Prime”

  NOVITIATE (Sony Classics):  It’s not clear how much of an audience there can be for a dark drama set amid the physical and psychological hardships of a pre-Vatican II midwestern abbey, but Margaret Betts’s N...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

OscarLand: The Nominations

  The Oscar nominations are here, and the biggest surprise is how few surprises they provide.  The closest thing to a shock was in the Best Actress category, where Ruth Negga and Isabelle Huppert were in, and that meant A...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “The Last Word” & “Thoroughbred”

  THE LAST WORD (Bleecker Street):  Shirley MacLaine does the irascible codger thing.  She’s smart enough not to overplay the very familiar hand she’s been dealt by screenwriter Stuart Ross Fink and director ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Rebel In the Rye,” “Newness,” “Landline,” “I Don’t Feel At Home,” “Ingrid Goes West” & “Walking Out”

  REBEL IN THE RYE (no distrib):  Danny Strong’s first film as a director is a biography of J. D. Salinger (Nicholas Hoult), and it hits all the Salinger bullet points:  his early struggles to get published, his sp...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Band Aid,” “The Discovery” & “Golden Exits”

  THE DISCOVERY (Netflix):  Charlie McDowell’s first film was the ingenious metaphysical farce The One I Love, so there was plenty of reason to eagerly anticipate his follow-up.  He (and, once again, co-writer Just...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Rings,” “Space Between Us” Punt Super Bowl Weekend, “Split” Scores Again

  Hollywood generally has little interest in opening films against the Super Bowl, and to the extent it participates, it tries to counterprogram the game by aiming at the young female demographic.  Thus we have a PG-13 ho...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Call Me By Your Name,” “Fun Mom Dinner,” “Before I Fall” & “Wind River”

  CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (Sony Classics):  Luca Guadagnino’s sumptuous gay romance has been anointed as the Sundance entry most likely to figure into next year’s Oscar race, and it’s easy to see why.  It ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY TUESDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 1.31.2017

  Last night’s live Supreme Court announcement may lead to some adjustments this afternoon. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAIL: For each broadcast program (or hour segment), the chart below displays preliminary key advertiser demog...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Powerless”

  POWERLESS:  Thursday 8:30PM on NBC – If Nothing Else is On… So far, NBC’s POWERLESS is merely a clever idea for a sitcom.  It’s set on the fringes of the DC superhero universe, in Charm City, wh...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”

  The first season of CW’s musical-comedy CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND was by far the most daring and distinctive show on broadcast television, but a nagging question remained:  what could it do for an encore?  It wasn̵...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 2.5.17

  OPENINGS:  It’s still too soon to gauge whether RINGS (Paramount) can creep its way to breakeven with international help (total production/marketing costs are $75M+), but it’s certainly not performing well e...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Season Finale Review: “The Young Pope”

  Viewed in its 10-hour entirety, THE YOUNG POPE encompassed much of the good and bad of Auteur TV.  HBO, by all appearances, wrote a (very large) check to the arthouse filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino as creator, director and ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Series Premiere Review: “Legion”

  LEGION:  Wednesday 10PM on FX – DVR Alert The answer to what Noah Hawley could do for an encore after Fargo is:  continue to spectacularly overperform.  Fargo was and is a totally unexpected piece of great telev...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “LEGO Batman,” “50 Shades Darker,” “John Wick 2″” All Solid

This is a well-designed weekend for Hollywood, with a trio of sensibly-budgeted franchise titles all drawing audiences from their mostly separate target demos.  The Friday winner, according to preliminary numbers at Deadline, ...
by Mitch Salem