OPENINGS:  The big box office news of this weekend happened overseas, where THE HOBBIT:  THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES (New Line/MGM/Warners) has already opened in 37 territories to a massive $117.6M in advance of its US launch next week.  The Hobbit movies have done overwhelmingly well overseas, with the previous installments earning respectively […]

Nobody is earning any stripes at NBC. NBC:  STARS EARN STRIPES is now a full-fledged disaster, falling to 0.9 in its 3rd week.  GRIMM fell a bit as well to 1.6 against reruns, which isn’t much better than the show had been doing when it aired against original competition on low-rated Fridays. FOX:  The network’s […]

  Wrong direction. 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 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of people over the age of 2). Ratings analysis and comparisons follow the chart. NBC:  ONE […]

A very interesting and competitive night of reality television last night. FOX can claim they won the night with a 3.3 rating with Adults 18-49 from 8-10 pm with the season premiere of The X Factor.  FOX will not go out of its way to compare the second season premiere to last year’s X Factor debut (4.4 rating […]

  There’s a reason why Christopher Nolan may be, along with James Cameron, the last filmmaker who can truly demand blank checks from Hollywood.  His WWII recreation DUNKIRK (Warners), devoid of name stars (apologies to Harry Styles) but riding a tide of Oscar-level reviews, is already overperforming expectations with a $19.8M opening day (including $5.5M […]

  There wasn’t much doubt about how at-home New Year’s Eve revelers preferred to watch 2015 come in. 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 18-49, men 18-49 and adults 50+ shares) and total viewership (thousands of […]

  This weekend’s boxoffice wasn’t so much a case of multiple winners as none at all. OPENINGS:  The closest thing to a victor was END OF WATCH (Open Road), which did about what one might have expected with a projected $13M total and a $4800 per-theatre average.  Its 11% Friday-to-Saturday bump wasn’t much to speak […]

The Past Week: Total Box Office Volume All films in wide release playing between September 24 and September 30 grossed a decent $136 million, up 7% from the four-year average for the week and up a similar 8% from the same week last year.     The past six weeks are now down 5% from the […]