CBS repeats impress on Tuesday

Fox had mixed results with its first night of a four-comedy Tuesday block, edging ahead of the competition on the night among young adults. Still, even a night of repeat dramas had CBS competitive in 18-49 while the net won easily in its core categories.According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, Fox rested ''Glee'' to form a two-hour comedy block, faring best as expected at 9 p.m. with ''New Girl'' (3.0/8 in 18-49, 6.0 million viewers overall), which was low but not bad given its soft lead-in from ''I Hate My Teenage Daughter'' (1.6/4 in 18-49, 3.8 million viewers overall), a first-year half-hour that aired on four Wednesdays in late fall. Best news for the net had to be the time-period premiere of ''Raising Hope'' at 8 (2.1/6 in 18-49, 4.8 million viewers overall), which did about the same as it had been at 9:30 p.m. following ''New Girl.'' And closing out the block was ''Breaking In'' (1.7/4 in 18-49, 3.6 million viewers overall), the Christian Slater show that aired seven times in spring of last year; it ran third among the broadcasters in 18-49, retaining 57% of its 18-49 lead-in from ''New Girl'' and outperforming its final original episode last May (1.3/3 in 18-49).CBS impressed, tying Fox for the 18-49 lead in their common hours and easily topping the night among adults 25-54 and total viewers. In the opening hour, ''NCIS'' (2.4/7 in adults 18-49, 14.4 million viewers overall) won its timeslot with an 18-49 score that was higher than all but two firstrun hours on ABC, NBC and Fox last week. It was followed by ''NCIS: Los Angeles'' (1.9/5 in 18-49, 11.9 million viewers overall) and ''Unforgettable'' (1.4/4 in 18-49, 8.2 million viewers overall), both of which led their time periods in 25-54.At NBC, ''The Biggest Loser'' hit a low (1.9/5 in 18-49, 5.7 million viewers overall), though the network disrupted its lineup in multiple cities for coverage of Super Tuesday, and some stations aired the weight-loss competition from 9 to 11; it's expected that ''Loser'' should improve a tick or two in the nationals. Also murky was the performance of the NBC News special ''Decision 2012,'' which aired at 10 p.m. in much of the country but at 8 p.m. in the West.ABC aired a repeat ''Last Man Standing'' (1.4/4 in 18-49, 5.5 million viewers overall), followed by ''Cougar Town'' (1.5/4 in 18-49, 4.4 million viewers overall), which was in line with Fox's ''Teenage Daughter'' in 18-49 at 8:30. Drama ''The River'' seems to have found its core audience (1.5/4 in 18-49, 4.2 million viewers overall), holding steady vs. last week, and the night wrapped with a repeat ''Body of Proof'' (0.9/2 in 18-49, 4.7 million viewers overall). For the night, ABC had to settle for a fifth-place finish among the broadcasters in 18-49, falling a tick short of fourth-place Univision.At CW, ''90210'' returned with its first original episode in a month (0.7/2 in 18-49, 1.3 million viewers overall), followed by ''Ringer'' (0.5/1 in 18-49, 1.2 million viewers overall), which posted its best women 18-34 score (0.8/2) since late November.Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 2.1/6; CBS, 1.9/5; NBC, 1.6/4; Univision, 1.4/4; ABC, 1.3/4; CW, 0.6/2.In total viewers: CBS, 11.5 million; NBC, 4.9 million; ABC, 4.6 million; Fox, 4.5 million; Univision, 3.3 million; CW, 1.3 million. Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com

Frankenweenie Bow Includes IMAX 3D

Los Angeles, CA Mar. 6, 2012 IMAX Corporation (NYSE:IMAX; TSX:IMX) and The Walt Disney Studios today announced that Tim Burtons stop-motion, animated film, Frankenweenie will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX 3D format and released in IMAX digital theatres worldwide day-and-date on Oct. 5, 2012. The film marks the first black and white Hollywood feature and first stop-motion animated movie to be presented in IMAX. From Disney and directed by Tim Burton, Frankenweenie: An IMAX 3D Experience features the voices of Catherine OHara, Martin Short and Winona Ryder. The film is a remake of the live-action short directed by Tim Burton in 1984.

Closes storm B.O., sans SAG card

Toplined by real-existence Navy Closes, 'Act of Valor' brought the domestic box office. Give them a call heroes, heroines as well as box office stars. Just don't give them a call stars. Although the eight active-duty Navy Closes who topline "Act of Valor," which snapped up $24.5 million within the February. 24-26 frame, shipped scripted dialogue, they were not included in SAG's collective negotiating agreement. Actually, the mere reference to SAG place the project's uniformed participants in defense mode. "We are not getting into that whatsoever," states the film's co-producer, Capt. Duncan Cruz, when requested when the recently minted celebrities have grown to be SAG people. "These were representing themselves. They were not playing service station mechanics or school instructors. These were playing Navy Closes dealing with training. We labored with SAG. This is the way these males works inside a Navy ad. Same situation." Still, it's not uncommon for any policeman who plays a police officer from the law inside a Hollywood production to concurrently hold a badge and SAG card. But "Valor's" filmmakers explain that unlike their film's uniformed gamers, SAG-covered cops are this is not on duty throughout production and therefore are needed to consider a compensated leave throughout lensing. "(These Closes are) not playing a component,Inch describes Scott Waugh, who directed the Relativity action thriller with Mike (Mouse) McCoy. "They are playing themselves. They're government employees. It might be illegal to allow them to take another contract and become compensated." SAG was not able to explain why the Closes were granted an exemption. So rather than taking conferences at CAA or WME, the mono-monikered Closes -- who dropped their last names for that film's credits because of Navy protocol -- say they immediately accompanied their 18-month "Valor" stint with increased dangerous (and clandestine) projects. Meanwhile, the filmmakers were equally cryptic about budget issues. Waugh rejected to go over "Valor's" cost, that your source called at $12 million. Distributor Relativity, that was not involved with financing the pic, set up just north of $30 millionfor P&A. "We funded a great deal from it ourselves," notes McCoy, who rejected to title additional traders. "This can be a true indie film. We did not possess a studio are available in and also have us ensure changes." The origin adds that Legendary also set up gold coin and nixed any notion the government funded "Valor," which some experts have compared to some feature-length recruitment video with Hollywood production values. McCoy states the Navy's participation was limited. "The Navy gave us complete creative control around the story," he adds. "However they needed to (ensure) that people did not hand out any classified information." Waugh, who choose McCoy includes a background like a stunt coordinator as well as in docus, describes the film like a hybrid -- part narrative feature, part quasi-documentary. He notes that unlike most action films, "Valor" eschews CG and stunt doubles, giving a feeling of real effects. "We are certainly starting unchartered territory," notes Waugh, who'll next team with McCoy around the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle "Black Sands." Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

First John Carter Reviews: A Problematic But Useful Epic?

Negative speculation and prognostication continues to be brewing for several weeks for Disney's sci-fi actioner John Carter because of dismal monitoring and gossips of bloated budgets, but Disney's finally launched their review embargo for that March 9 would-be blockbuster. So what is the early buzz in the first critiques of Andrew Stanton's undertake the Edgar Grain Burroughs saga, in regards to a Civil War veteran named John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) who lands in the center of a civil fight against Mars? Because of the naysaying hype, the very first batch of comments are remarkably... positive. Well, mixed positive, typically -- experts agree with most of the film's talents, in the well-crafted CG realm of Barsoom (that's Mars, to us humans) towards the spirited action sequences Pixar veteran Stanton has drawn off. (Search for Movieline's John Carter review to publish in a few days.) "A few of the items that Stanton pulls off in John Carter is mind-coming," enthuses Badass Digest's Devin Faraci. "You will find a couple of sequences that feel simply classic, like very well be mentioning for them for many years. Theres one scene, where John Carter stands alone (well, with Woola) against a rampaging military of nine feet tall, four armed Tharks, that's an exciting-timer." Talking about individuals Tharks -- the 4-armed eco-friendly Martian players that first enslave John Carter and pressure him to battle on their behalf -- Stanton's CG background pointing Finding Nemo and Wall-E appears to possess assisted him create credible, dimensional figures with a mix of CG animation and gratifaction capture. HitFix's Came McWeeney was particularly astounded by the CG-heavy figures. "The Tharks, brought here by Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe), are compelling masterpieces," he creates. "With a couple of moments to their time onscreen, I ended taking into consideration the technical trick involved with getting these to existence and just recognized them just as real.Inch Meanwhile, actress Lynn Collins came kudos on her portrayal of Martian princess Dejah Thoris, a science-minded warrior princess who can serve as Carter's romantic foil while holding her very own together with her inteligence and her sword. "Lynn Collinss feisty Dejah Thoris is the greatest kick-ass sci-fi princess since Leia, and she or he looks stunning too together with her Martian tats," states SFX Magazine. Additionally to potentially starting youthful teenage boys into adolescence together with her sensual, revealing costumes (the skimpiness which Dejah a minimum of appreciates having a wink), she's among the finest-written and abnormally strong female figures in the future along in genre filmmaking shortly. Or, as Faraci declares: "Dejah Thoris is the greatest female character in sci-fiOrdream cinema since Ripley." However the experts also agree where John Carter's defects are worried -- for example, the sprawling, frequently-unwieldy scope of their story and also the clumsy means by which Stanton and Co. filter it lower to some dense (maybe too-dense) feature-length runtime. Area of the problem is based on compacting Burroughs' Princess of Mars novel lower to 1 feature-length script while juggling the numerous moving parts -- John Carter's Civil War past, the mechanics of his Mars-assisted forces, the political machinations between your two warring city-states of Zodanga and Helium, the all-powerful Tharks who walk included in this tugging the strings, the warrior culture from the Tharks, as well as an Earth-bound framework device including Carter's nephew, Edgar Grain Burroughs, phew! -- while furthermore trying to create happens for sequels in the future. "Amongst the CGI conditions and constant plot machinations, the storyline veers between interesting, boring and borderline incomprehensive," stated Fan the fireplace Magazine. "You will find moments once the film soars, simply to stall and sputter on the well-meaning but extraneous - or overlong - character moment," gripes SFX Magazine, adding that "extended exposition moments and Martian politics are hampered by cod pomposity and also the dreaded 'silly-made-up-sci-fi-words' disease." Ultimately, if audiences react as CinemaBlend's Sean O'Connell did, Disney's greatest problem on March 9 will reflect its early monitoring worries from days ago: Viewer indifference. "The majority of Carter [is] a difficult slog, despite some decent performances and also the admirable introduction of the tough-as-nails action heroine in Collins," O'Connell creates. "Arid, barren Barsoom is really a dull atmosphere for any sci-fi blockbuster, and also the effects from the conflicts happening on the watch's screen are small. John Carter never drawn me in." Find out more on John Carter here.