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Weekend Box Office: “Catching Fire” Strikes Tinder Tonight

  THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, the 600-pound gorilla of the holiday movie box office season (The Hobbit 2 is by comparison a smaller simian, at least in the US) opens tonight, and the question is just how big it will b...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SKED: CBS Fall Premiere Dates

  As befits the most traditional of the broadcast networks, CBS will launch almost all of its Fall 2012 premieres during Fall Premiere week, Sept. 24-30: Wed Sept 19 8PM:          SURVIVOR Mon Sept 24 8PM:    ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 9.1.2019

  OPENINGS:  Labor Day weekend is traditionally Hollywood’s graveyard, and no major studio touched the holiday with a fresh arrival.  DON’T LET GO (Blumhouse Tilt/OTL) tried to take advantage of the quiet, ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “War Horse”

  WAR HORSE:  Watch It At Home –  Spielberg’s Beautiful Muzak   Earlier this year, audiences were presented with Super 8, J. J. Abrams’s pastiche of Steven Spielberg’s classic sci-fi adventures f...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

PREMIERING TONIGHT – THE SKED PILOT REPORT: NBC’s “Chicago Fire”

  CHICAGO FIRE: Wednesday 10PM on NBC – Change the Channel Network television doesn’t come more dully generic than NBC’s “new” CHICAGO FIRE, a series that seems to be assembling itself out of ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Box Office Footnotes – 7/1/11

> TRANSFORMERS:  DARK OF THE MOON becomes the latest franchise movie to fall short in the US compared to prior chapters of the series, despite an increased 3D ticket price.  (Like others, most notably Pirates 4, it ma...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED FRIDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 11/22/13

  CW:  The premiere of the final season of NIKITA may make CW wonder why it bothered, with a virtually invisible 0.2.  That was even worse than the 0.3 for THE CARRIE DIARIES, even with last week. NBC:  After more than...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office Report – 2.14.2021

  OPENINGS:  The Presidents Day weekend wide releases were Sundance titles seeking to take advantage of the expanded “2020” Oscar calendar, which includes films released through February 2021.  Both would lik...
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
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Box Office – 11.14.2021

  OPENINGS:  CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG (Nickelodeon/Paramount, also on Paramount+) opened on Wednesday and earned $22M over 5 days, $16.4M of it over the weekend.  That’s somewhat above the $13.1M start for Paw Patr...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED’S TUESDAY NETWORK SCORECARD – 9/25/12

  No real winners. FOX:  People forget just how much NEW GIRL had slipped since the heady days of its premiere–although it sounds awful to compare last night’s pair of 2.7s to that 4.8 start a year ago, the ev...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

EARLY FRIDAY BOX OFFICE: “Black Panther” Stays Superpowered, “Game Night” OK, “Annihilation” Perishes

  BLACK PANTHER (Marvel/Disney) is now in competition only with the loftiest movie hits.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, its 2nd Friday was $28.4M (down 63% from last week), behind just The Avengers‘ ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SKED Season Premiere Review: “Beauty & the Beast”

  BEAUTY & THE BEAST:  Monday 9PM on CW Referring to any CW series as a “bubble show” is sort of a misnomer, because with the exceptions of The Vampire Diaries, Arrow and Supernatural, everything the netwo...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

BEHIND THE WEEKEND BOX OFFICE – 11/24/13

  OPENINGS:  We noted here yesterday that if THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE (Lionsgate) could just hold on as well on its first Saturday as The Hunger Games had, a $160M weekend was within its grasp.  That’s exact...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

UPDATED: THE SKED CABLE/NETWORK WEDNESDAY SCORECARD – 8/6/14

  NETWORK UPDATE:  BIG BROTHER and CRIMINAL MINDS each gained 0.1, but not EXTANT.  However, that show was able to claim victory at 10PM, because TAXI BROOKLYN lost 0.1.  The NASHVILLE: ON THE RECORD rerun gained 0.1, f...
by Mitch Salem