With all the hubbub about its dramatic contortions, THE KILLING has been surprisingly stable in the ratings since midway through its first season (it’s down about 30% from its original debut), and last night’s Season 3 premiere was on par with most of its numbers since then, 1.8M total viewers and what should be […]

Projected weekly network ratings in prime time (based on four days of official nationals and three days of fast nationals).  NBC will win the week ending Sunday with a 1.42 adult 18-49 rating in prime time, identical to last week’s rating and only 4% below the same week last year.  Although The Voice is getting […]

  Broadcast TV barely even had a pulse last night. FOX:  Somebody had to “win,” and that was FOX, with a line-up of animated reruns that gave the network a 1.3 average for the night. NBC:  The night’s only original non-news telecast, WOMEN’S CONCERT FOR CHANGE, had an 0.8 rating, less than half what FOX’s […]

  OPENINGS:  NOW YOU SEE ME (Summit/Lionsgate) had a fine $28.1M opening weekend considering its moderate cost ($75M plus marketing, but with 2/3 of that covered by foreign pre-sales), and with little competition coming next week, it could have a solid hold–plus it’s exactly the kind of light entertainment that thrives on home viewing platforms.  […]

STUDIO SCORECARD.  No change in the studio worldwide box office rankings this week.  Universal is extremely hot with the broad international appeal of Fast & Furious 6, but there is still about $500 million to go to catch #1 Disney.  Fox, Paramount and Warner Brothers are very tightly bunched in the next tier. Looking at […]

Updated weekly international box office chart.

Based on Friday’s and Saturday’s grosses, Weekend #22 of 2013 now looks like a solid $157 million for the top 12 films, up over 10% from comparable weekends the past few years.  Now You See Me is the one film that exceeded our forecast earlier this week, while the other opener (After Earth) and all of the major holdovers remain […]

  Things didn’t improve for AFTER EARTH (Sony) on Saturday.  According to preliminary numbers at Deadline, Will Smith’s gift to his son Jaden (and, some say, to the Church of Scientology) increased only a miniscule 3% in its second day of release, and probably won’t top $27M for the weekend.  The caper sleeper NOW YOU […]