>Now 12 full weeks into 2012, year-to-date domestic box office is running 26% ahead of last year’s worrisome pace, and the year-to-date total is now fully 15% ahead of the comparable period’s average for the last several years.  The Hunger Games lived up to the hype and played like an early summer tentpole in March. […]

  OPENINGS:  CRAWL (Paramount) may be an example of a studio outsmarting itself.  Paramount held no critics screenings, presumably because disdain was expected, and thus was unable to create any advance buzz around a response that turned out to be remarkably enthusiastic (88% on Rotten Tomatoes).  The result was a tepid $12M opening, and since […]

The Labor Day holiday will cause delays for daily nationals ratings (cable and broadcast finals) for a few days.  This is how the ratings should roll out this week.  We will update this schedule if anything changes.  (All times Pacific.) Friday Sep 2 nationals rescheduled to Tuesday Sep 6 at 1 pm (normally Monday afternoon) Saturday Sep 3 nationals rescheduled to Wednesday Sep 7 at 6 am […]

  3 of the 4 major broadcast networks averaged under a 1.5 rating last week, a number that not so long ago meant instant cancellation.  CBS has been head-and-shoulders above the other networks for the past 2 weeks, but that’s because of the event programming of the How I Met Your Mother finale and the […]

>The weekend studio estimates (based on Friday and Saturday actuals and projections for Sunday) are coming in about the same as the weekend numbers posted yesterday (based on Friday actuals only).  The box office volume for the top 12 films is now looking like $146 million for the weekend, up 28% from last year’s weekend […]

  We’re just days away from the launch of the summer movie season, the most important part of the year for all of the major studios.  Literally billions of dollars will be on the line over the next several months, with almost every weekend bringing a high-stakes bet to the table from one or more […]

>The Hunger Games will hold on to the #1 spot at the box office this weekend.  With $12.9 million Friday, Hunger Games is headed for $32.5 million in its third weekend, beating the $30.5 million ShowBuzzDaily forecast.  The film is should pass $300 million Sunday and is now headed for $378 million domestic. The two […]

        NETWORK FINALS:  Note that the WE DAY special must have run without commercials, and thus it wasn’t included in Nielsen’s final ratings.  As expected, there were a slew of adjustments for the night, mostly attributable to NFL PRESEASON games.  The following shows dropped 0.2 from their preliminary ratings:  the reruns of […]