EIGHT NEW FILMS — COUNT ‘EM EIGHT! — TO OPEN OVER HOLIDAY

Pity the poor studio scheduler. Each one of them knew that if they had opened a movie a couple of weeks before The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was released — never mind the same weekend that it was — their movie would be killed. Their only alternative was to release theirs after The Hobbit‘s opening. […]

CATHOLIC LEAGUE TO WAGE WAR ON JON STEWART

Jon Stewart’s comedic commentary taking to task the Fox News Network for referring to various “wars” on everything from Christmas to chocolate milk but having nothing to say about the “war on women, (i.e. recent efforts to reimpose discriminatory rules affecting women in the workplace) has ignited the anger of Bill Donahue, president of The […]

BASKETBALL RETURNS ON XMAS — NO AUDIENCE LOSS EVIDENT

It would appear that the NBA lockout that delayed the start of the current season until Christmas Day had little or no effect on viewership — that is, judging from ratings for Sunday’s quadrupleheader carried by ABC, ESPN and TNT. In fact, the Boston Celtics-New York Knicks game on TNT averaged 5.9 million viewers, making […]

FOOTBALL CRUSHES XMAS COMPETITION

NBC’s Sunday Night Football coverage of the Chicago Bears/Green Bay Packers game averaged 20.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen overnight ratings. Because of the live nature of the game, that figure is almost certain to rise when final figures are released late today or tomorrow. The game overwhelmed just about everything else on television, which, […]

M:I — GHOST PROTOCOL A TOWERING HIT (Updated)

Paramount’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol towered above a slew of imposing openers and strong holdovers as it grossed an estimated $29.5million over the Friday-to-Sunday holiday period and $39.5 million between Friday and Monday. The film, which opened last weekend primarily in a limited number of IMAX theaters, expanded on Wednesday, and will have earned […]

A FEAST OF PLENTY AT THE BOX OFFICE

There have been scattered releases throughout the week of the some half-dozen films that are opening over the Christmas holiday — but two films aren’t opening until Christmas Day itself, the 3D horror/sci-fi film The Darkest Hour and Steven Spielberg’s War Horse. It’s hard to figure out why those two films aren’t making it into […]

NEW HOLIDAY BARGAINS AHEAD; WALMART PLANS BLACK SATURDAY

With some reports indicating that holiday sales have not been living up to expectations since last month’s Black Friday, some department stores and consumer electronics outlets are reportedly moving quickly to make sure they’ve reduced inventory substantially before Dec. 25. Walmart said Wednesday that on Saturday, Dec. 17 it plans to offer its “lowest prices […]

HOLIDAY BOX OFFICE: BAH, HUMBUG!

(Updated) Studios and theater owners were no doubt in full agreement with Ebenezer Scrooge’s assessment of the Christmas holiday this weekend as total ticket receipts plunged 49 percent below last year’s. The ghost of Christmas past surely haunted Universal’s Little Fockers, which, although coming in first, earned just $34 million over the weekend and $48.3 […]

WEATHER MAY FREEZE HOLIDAY BOX OFFICE

A white Christmas may have been a pleasant thing for Bing Crosby to croon about, but weather conditions over most of the U.S. and Europe during this season is threatening to force many of the usual holiday moviegoers to remain home. The dreadful weather is also being blamed in part for a sudden slowdown in […]