NBC's Community, Parks and Recreation and Mercy have been picked up for full seasons, NBC announced on Friday.
The Dan Harmon-produced Community started off in the 9:30/8:30c timeslot before the return of 30 Rock with 7.88 million viewers. Though its ratings have slightly dropped in its new 8/7c time period, the series has increased 12 percent in the 18-49 demographic. The show now averages 5.7 million viewers.
Parks and Recreation, starring Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones, averages 4.8 million viewers and hit a season high with Thursday's episode, adding another 100,000 viewers.
Mercy, starring Taylor Schilling and Michelle Trachtenberg, earns an average of 7.8 million viewers weekly. In its last three airings, the freshman drama has finished first in the 9/8c time period.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
$60m Deal Sends Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Nickelodeon; Paramount Will Make New Feature Film for 2012
When I was reading oversized black and white TMNT comics in the mid-’80s, I never would have guessed that one day the rights to those characters would be trading for sixty million dollars. But that’s what Nickelodeon just paid to pick up global TMNT rights from the Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment. The result of the deal? The rumored new film and a new CG-animated series will both arrive in 2012.
Variety reports the deal, which puts all intellectual property rights and all merchandising rights to the characters into the hands of Nickelodeon. The current animated series, produced by Mirage and 4Kids, will air through the end of October.
No indication is given as to what the new CGI series will look like, and there are few details about the upcoming feature other than the fact that Nickelodeon sister company Paramount and producer Scott Mednick will be behind it. (The previous live-action films and the most recent CGI film were distributed by New Line and Warner Brothers, respectively.) We’d previously heard that the next feature film, aimed for 2011, would be a Mirage Group production written by John Fusco and made with a hybrid live-action CGI style. Mednick was producing at that point as well, so it’s not unsafe to guess that the same approach and creative team will remain intact even after this deal.
The new film has been called a Batman Begins-style reboot which would re-tell the origin of the characters. Co-creator Peter Laird has suggested it might even include the two-legged robot ‘mousers’ which appeared in early issues of the black and white comic series. But a casting call announcement earlier this year, which was obviously premature, sought martial artists to appear as the Foot Clan, which suggests that the film will re-tell the Shredder / April / Foot Clan story seen in altered form in the original 1990 live-action movie.
Variety reports the deal, which puts all intellectual property rights and all merchandising rights to the characters into the hands of Nickelodeon. The current animated series, produced by Mirage and 4Kids, will air through the end of October.
No indication is given as to what the new CGI series will look like, and there are few details about the upcoming feature other than the fact that Nickelodeon sister company Paramount and producer Scott Mednick will be behind it. (The previous live-action films and the most recent CGI film were distributed by New Line and Warner Brothers, respectively.) We’d previously heard that the next feature film, aimed for 2011, would be a Mirage Group production written by John Fusco and made with a hybrid live-action CGI style. Mednick was producing at that point as well, so it’s not unsafe to guess that the same approach and creative team will remain intact even after this deal.
The new film has been called a Batman Begins-style reboot which would re-tell the origin of the characters. Co-creator Peter Laird has suggested it might even include the two-legged robot ‘mousers’ which appeared in early issues of the black and white comic series. But a casting call announcement earlier this year, which was obviously premature, sought martial artists to appear as the Foot Clan, which suggests that the film will re-tell the Shredder / April / Foot Clan story seen in altered form in the original 1990 live-action movie.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Castle Picked Up for Full Second Season
ABC has picked up Castle for a full 22-episode season, TVGuide.com has confirmed.
The procedural dramedy, which stars Nathan Fillion as an author who helps solve crimes to cure his writers block, debuted in March to 11.6 million viewers. Although the show's numbers have fallen off a bit this season (it's averaging between 9 and 10 million viewers), it has held a respectable chunk of its Dancing with the Stars lead-in.
ABC previously announced full-season orders of new comedies Modern Family, Cougar Town and The Middle as well as freshman drama FlashForward.
The procedural dramedy, which stars Nathan Fillion as an author who helps solve crimes to cure his writers block, debuted in March to 11.6 million viewers. Although the show's numbers have fallen off a bit this season (it's averaging between 9 and 10 million viewers), it has held a respectable chunk of its Dancing with the Stars lead-in.
ABC previously announced full-season orders of new comedies Modern Family, Cougar Town and The Middle as well as freshman drama FlashForward.
Fox Orders Three More Lie to Me Scripts
Fox has ordered three more episodes of Lie to Me, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The additional scripts bring the crime drama's second-season order to 16 episodes. A midseason replacement last January, piggybacking American Idol, Lie to Me has been off to a slow start this fall, losing nearly half of lead-in House's audience each week.
The additional scripts bring the crime drama's second-season order to 16 episodes. A midseason replacement last January, piggybacking American Idol, Lie to Me has been off to a slow start this fall, losing nearly half of lead-in House's audience each week.
Wii Price Drop Spurs Sales
Nintendo anticipates a big holiday season.
The September NPD numbers are now available and it's no surprise that Nintendo is once again seeing great success with its breakthrough console and wildly popular handheld. Even though the PS3 took the top spot for hardware sales, it seems as though the price drop could push Nintendo back up top at the end of the year.
Wii sales increased by 185, 468 units in September, a 67% increase over August. This can mostly be attributed to the price drop that affected the last week of NPD's reported numbers for the month. Meanwhile the DS broke 500,000 units in the month of September, trouncing the PSP by over 300,000 units. We'll have to wait until next month to find out if the newly released PSPgo evens the playing field.
Nintendo shows little signs of slowing down. Nintendo of America remarked on the data: "We anticipate increased momentum through the holidays. Consumer sampling events are now underway, and we expect to interact with over a million people before year end."
We'll keep an eye on Nintendo's rate of success as we head towards the holiday season.
The September NPD numbers are now available and it's no surprise that Nintendo is once again seeing great success with its breakthrough console and wildly popular handheld. Even though the PS3 took the top spot for hardware sales, it seems as though the price drop could push Nintendo back up top at the end of the year.
Wii sales increased by 185, 468 units in September, a 67% increase over August. This can mostly be attributed to the price drop that affected the last week of NPD's reported numbers for the month. Meanwhile the DS broke 500,000 units in the month of September, trouncing the PSP by over 300,000 units. We'll have to wait until next month to find out if the newly released PSPgo evens the playing field.
Nintendo shows little signs of slowing down. Nintendo of America remarked on the data: "We anticipate increased momentum through the holidays. Consumer sampling events are now underway, and we expect to interact with over a million people before year end."
We'll keep an eye on Nintendo's rate of success as we head towards the holiday season.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Wild Things Rumpus at the Box Office
The ComingSoon.net Box Office Report has been updated with studio estimates for the weekend.
What's turning out to be an October for the record books continues to thrive with the second movie to open over $30 million, as filmmaker Spike Jonze's take on Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are opened with approximately $32.7 million in 3,735 theaters including IMAX screens, surpassing some expectations but not all. With a solid average of $8,693 per site, the film benefitted from a solid marketing campaign and praise from critics that made it apparent that it was far more than just a kiddie film, and in just three days, it is the auteur director's biggest theatrical take so far.
Opening solidly in second place, the Gerard Butler-Jamie Foxx thriller Law Abiding Citizen (Overture Films) grossed roughly $21.2 million in 2,890 theaters, also bringing in audiences with its strong marketing campaign. It marks the largest opening for the fledgling two year old distributor whose biggest hit previously was the Robert De Niro and Al Pacino crime-thriller Righteous Kill last year.
Oren Peli's low budget ghost movie Paranormal Activity (Paramount) expanded into nationwide release in 760 theaters where it grossed $20.16 million for third place, scoring an impressive $26.5k per site, which is the 13th highest average for a wide release. The movie, which reportedly cost less than $15,000, has grossed over $33 million since opening in select cities on September 25. On Friday, the movie will expand into roughly 2,000 theaters where it's likely to continue its strong run due to the positive word-of-mouth.
After a strong opening in first place, the Vince Vaughn tropical comedy Couples Retreat (Universal) dropped 48% to fourth place with a second weekend take of $17.9 million, bringing its total to $63.3 million.
Even with two other horror-thrillers in theaters, Screen Gems' remake of The Stepfather, starring Dylan Walsh and Amber Heard, was able to bring in $12.3 million to take fifth place.
Sony's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Zombieland swapped places with the former taking sixth place with $8.1 million and the latter falling to seventh place with $7.8 million. "Cloudy" crossed the $100 million mark on Thursday and the $24 million budgeted zombie comedy has grossed $60.8 million in three weeks.
On the other hand, DIsney's two movies both tanked this weekend with the Toy Story 3D Double Feature dropping 61% and adding $3 million to its take of $28.6 million. (It was originally meant as a two-week limited release.) The action film Surrogates (Disney/Touchstone) took in less than $2 million in its fourth weekend having grossed $36.3 million.
The Ricky Gervais comedy The Invention of Lying (Warner Bros.) closed off the Top 10 with $1.9 million and $15.5 million total
The Top 10 grossed roughly $127 million, up an astounding 58% over the same weekend last year when Fox's Max Payne, starring Mark Wahlberg, topped the box office with $17.6 million. By comparison, this weekend saw four movies surpass that amount.
Some of the movies of note opening in limited release included the anthology film New York, I Love You (Vivendi), which took in $372 thousand in 119 theaters, and Scott Sanders' Blacksploitation spoof Black Dynamite (Apparition), starring Michael Jai White, which grossed $141 thousand in 70 theaters.
What's turning out to be an October for the record books continues to thrive with the second movie to open over $30 million, as filmmaker Spike Jonze's take on Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are opened with approximately $32.7 million in 3,735 theaters including IMAX screens, surpassing some expectations but not all. With a solid average of $8,693 per site, the film benefitted from a solid marketing campaign and praise from critics that made it apparent that it was far more than just a kiddie film, and in just three days, it is the auteur director's biggest theatrical take so far.
Opening solidly in second place, the Gerard Butler-Jamie Foxx thriller Law Abiding Citizen (Overture Films) grossed roughly $21.2 million in 2,890 theaters, also bringing in audiences with its strong marketing campaign. It marks the largest opening for the fledgling two year old distributor whose biggest hit previously was the Robert De Niro and Al Pacino crime-thriller Righteous Kill last year.
Oren Peli's low budget ghost movie Paranormal Activity (Paramount) expanded into nationwide release in 760 theaters where it grossed $20.16 million for third place, scoring an impressive $26.5k per site, which is the 13th highest average for a wide release. The movie, which reportedly cost less than $15,000, has grossed over $33 million since opening in select cities on September 25. On Friday, the movie will expand into roughly 2,000 theaters where it's likely to continue its strong run due to the positive word-of-mouth.
After a strong opening in first place, the Vince Vaughn tropical comedy Couples Retreat (Universal) dropped 48% to fourth place with a second weekend take of $17.9 million, bringing its total to $63.3 million.
Even with two other horror-thrillers in theaters, Screen Gems' remake of The Stepfather, starring Dylan Walsh and Amber Heard, was able to bring in $12.3 million to take fifth place.
Sony's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Zombieland swapped places with the former taking sixth place with $8.1 million and the latter falling to seventh place with $7.8 million. "Cloudy" crossed the $100 million mark on Thursday and the $24 million budgeted zombie comedy has grossed $60.8 million in three weeks.
On the other hand, DIsney's two movies both tanked this weekend with the Toy Story 3D Double Feature dropping 61% and adding $3 million to its take of $28.6 million. (It was originally meant as a two-week limited release.) The action film Surrogates (Disney/Touchstone) took in less than $2 million in its fourth weekend having grossed $36.3 million.
The Ricky Gervais comedy The Invention of Lying (Warner Bros.) closed off the Top 10 with $1.9 million and $15.5 million total
The Top 10 grossed roughly $127 million, up an astounding 58% over the same weekend last year when Fox's Max Payne, starring Mark Wahlberg, topped the box office with $17.6 million. By comparison, this weekend saw four movies surpass that amount.
Some of the movies of note opening in limited release included the anthology film New York, I Love You (Vivendi), which took in $372 thousand in 119 theaters, and Scott Sanders' Blacksploitation spoof Black Dynamite (Apparition), starring Michael Jai White, which grossed $141 thousand in 70 theaters.
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