Lots of “ratings were down because of new moon” comments in our Thursday ratings post. And while reports are that the movie will be doing very well at the box office, there were nearly as many people watching television in the main adult demo groups last night as there were last Thursday.
Thursday 11/19 vs. Thursday 11/12 primetime averages (8-11pm)
Adults 18-34: 32.6% watching TV vs. 34.3% (down 1.7%)
Adults 18-49: 36.5% watching TV vs. 37.9% (down 1.4%)
More likely the decline in broadcast network viewing was due to some viewers being siphoned off by the NFL Network’s Dolphins/Panthers game. Last Thursday’s game drew about 4 million average viewers. No word yet on last night’s game ratings, but they are likely to be somewhat similar.
Update: Robert agrees with the spirit of the post above, but not the letter of it.
So let’s ignore the 8000lb gorilla in the room that will top almost all box office records.
Brad, I see even the data fails to convince. Oh well.
It’s going to break the midnight record, November record and maybe the Opening Day record(though that’ll be tough) it has no chance at any other substantial record.
Granted, I don’t count, but if I went to see New Moon last night I wouldn’t have watched Bones, Fringe, Vampire Diaries, Community or The Office.
And it’s not “Twilight: New Moon”. It’s just New Moon. The dubbed it the Twilight Saga so peeps wouldn’t be confused.
Now excuse me while I go put on my “I love boys who sparkle” panties.
The movie opened at midnight. It was not in direct competition with any of these shows.
AK, I can see the argument that it was in competition, due to lining up early and Twilight being shown earlier, and selling out like crazy as well. But the data just isn’t there. At all.
AK,
Unless you didn’t turn on your TV last night or failed to read a newspaper or any online blogging, some people lined up 12+ hours before just to see the film. Some Theaters (about half) also showed Twilight at 9pm. You couldn’t just ‘walk into’ the film at 11:50.
Ok, let me put it like this: not many adults 18-49 would be out watching some terrible teen flick.
John,
Incorrect. Many adults were forced to go out because kids can’t be out past curphew. Many were dragged to see this film or just hung out at Starbucks until it was over. You don’t know the appeal this film has to women 12-40.
College and NFL football probably played a bigger role than New Moon. Why would anyone stand in line for movie tickets when you’ve been able to order them online for at least a week?
Thanks for the title correction
Brad, it doesn’t matter how long the lines were for TV ratings! The number of 18-34 and 18-49 year olds watching TV last night was almost exactly the same as last Thursday!
Lester’s,
Many sites were sold out of pre-ordered tickets. Plus, tweens just like the atmosphere of waiting out there with friends, chatting, playing games etc. It’s an experience.
God help me why I know so much about this crap.
Bill,
Maybe they would have been higher had it not been for New Moon
I’m going with sunspots.
Originally Posted by Deadline Hollywood
BREAKING NEWS! FRIDAY AM: Rival studios are telling me this morning that Summit Entertainment’s New Moon debuted with $23M-$24M in 12:01AM screenings. That would set a new midnight opening record, smashing The Dark Knight’s $18.4M set on July 18, 2008, and Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince’s $22.2M set on July 15, 2009. Summit has yet to release an official number for the Twilight sequel’s midnight debut in 3,514 theaters.
Give me a break. As if those nuts standing in line 12+ hours to see a movie they already had a ticket for were at all representative of what was going on across the country. That’s like saying tv viewership was down for 2 months prior to the opening of “The Phantom Menace” because people were waiting in line that long.
I can guarantee if I had bought a ticket in advance, I very much could have just “walked into” it at 11:50.
While I agree that New Moon did not affect most of the shows in anyway…
Twitter pretty much showed all the evidence as to why Vampire Diaries and Supernatural (the CW shows) were down. All across Twitter, people were Tweeting, “Sad to be missing VD and SPN tonight so that I can New Moon!” And things similar to that.
So, while the viewers of Fringe or FlashForward might have been watching the football game… viewers of Supernatural and Vampire Diaries were probably getting their vamp-attire on for most of the evening.
Brad, who cares what it would have been if not for New Moon. The point is, almost everything was down on broadcast this week, but the data says, quite clearly, that they weren’t leaving broadcast for something out of the house. They left it for cable. Period. There’s no possible way to argue that it was due to New Moon, unless you care to ignore all facts in the case.
Maybe the low numbers are somehow tied to the promotion these shows get in Italy?
Julia,
Just making a conversation…gees girl. Guess you won’t be seeing it this weekend?
Kaye, Twitter doesn’t point to anything, except maybe a few hundred, at most, people had that problem. Supernatural actually managed to stay even with last week.
Brad, we know, the movie was big. Still had nothing to do with TV last night. And consider this: The average ticket costs $10 (probably more at this point, but it’s easier to stick to $10) so even if the upper limit was reached, that was still only 2.4 million people, including all age groups, not just A18-49 or A18-34.
I’m a major football fan but, The game sucked last night. Another NFL network game between two non playoff teams. I don’t buy that game being a major reason for dropoff. Maybe a minor reason not major
I was dragged to see New Moon and I had to leave my house at 7:00 PM. By the time I got to the cinema, it was FULL, so yes, it could have affected the ratings.
And John – have you ever heard of Twimoms? hahaha. XD
Can’t well all just agree that it was the football game and New Moon and get along? It’s not really that important when in the end we all seem to agree that this is not a case of the Dollhouses or Heroes, but that it’ll likely turn back around next week. Dude, do we really need to get out the bingo cards when very healthy shows like VD and GA performing a smidge worse now.
“BREAKING NEWS! FRIDAY AM: Rival studios are telling me this morning that Summit Entertainment’s New Moon debuted with $23M-$24M in 12:01AM screenings”
In other words, less than one percent of the country saw a midnight screening, and a fraction of those people would have been waiting in line during prime time television, and most of those people are under 18. Yeah, that sounds like it’s going to put a dent in television ratings
Careless,
Many adults had to supervise because of curphew. Just because they didn’t buy a ticket didn’t mean they didn’t grab a late dinner/coffee.
Adults were the people driving their pre teens to wait for the movie.
And which parts of the country have curfew during most of prime time?
I’ve linked to the article with my username. I’ve just completed a full analysis of the midnight showings for New Moon, and we could be looking at a $150 million weekend. Shockingly huge! Still, I think that this would only effect the 10PM hour, if at all. No showings were until 12:01
Careless,
Parents could have dropped off kids and got dinner (or hell just had some alone time * wink wink * )
Grady,
as it’s been stated, Twilight aired in half the Theaters at 9pm.
Box office grosses for New Moon last night are $22-24 million. At the national average of $7.18 (the-numbers.com) a ticket, this is about 3.3 million people. This includes advance sales, so not all ticket sales were for last night’s TV viewing. Had to say this movie had that much impact on Thursday night viewing.
And yet, apparently none of them watch TV on a normal Thursday night anyway. Funny how that works.
Oops….got to read post one last time before submitting…
This includes advance sales, so not all ticket sales were for last night’s movie viewing. Had to say this movie had that much impact on Thursday night TV viewing.
Lololol.
I hate people so much. These movies are laughable insults to vampire lore in general, not to mention horrible movies in their own rights.
Anyone who isn’t a teenage girl that pays money to see ‘New Moon’ in the theater deserves to be punched in the face.
Eric,
Fair opinion but I would say the same to anyone who likes Lord of the Rings though.
Okay, it’s obvious that Brad knows it all. Yes, Brad, television ratings were down substantially because so tween film opened at midnight showings and the little rugrats couldn’t be out that late alone. Are you happy now?
By the way, grab a dictionary and learn the correct spelling of curfew. That’s C-U-R-F-E-W. Perhaps if you spelled correctly people would actually care about your opinions, that is, if your opinions were based on facts instead of a desire to pump up a film whose DVDs will be in the bargain bin in four months.
Joe,
Thankz fur the commentz. I am assamed about curfew.
Joe,
This post was created because not just me but others think New Moon played a role in lower ratings. If you don’t agree I’m sorry.
Please show me where Twilight DVD is in the bargain bin. You do know its one of the Top grossing DVD/Blu-rays of 2009, right? Do you need numbers to prove that?
Oh my God, you are so funny you should write for The Office!
I agree though, that you are an ass.
I’m surprised you didn’t go see the 9:00 p.m. New Moon showings with your life size cut-out of Taylor Lautner.
Why don’t you show me the evidence that New Moon played any role in the ratings or shut up?
There is no evidence that New Moon had any sort of impact whatsoever, despite your needy desire to comment and rebut every person who posts. Saying something five hundred times doesn’t make it true.
I don’t care about the DVD/Blu-Ray/etc. sales of Twilight, so no I don’t need nor do I care about that information.
I take (partly) the New Moon view:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/11/20/new-moon-effect-of-course-there-was-especially-for-the-vampire-diaries/34200
Love the personal insult’s being tossed around. You can’t even have an argument without flinging them. Very mature. Are you just mad it beat The Dark Knight’s record?
Again, you may not agree with me and that’s fine. But the simple fact is New Moon just killed The Dark Knight for Midnight showings. It’s 100% possible it affected Thursday Night viewership. Even if it’s by a small, tiny amount, it still played a role.
Now, do you need to see Twilight DVD/BD numbers? It’s selling very well right now in stores and has since it’s March debut.
So now you don’t care about the DVDs, Joe? Make up your mind!
Update: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118011668.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
New Moon box office $26.3. At $7.18 a ticket that’s about 3.6 million people. Still, including advance sales. More people watched Parks and Recreation last night. BTW, P&R was hilarious! boola boola boola
Brad, no one claimed that New Moon did not beat Dark Knight. I don’t keep track of midnight showings records, and didn’t even know who held the title, so claiming I’m a disgruntled Dark Knight fan is idiotic.
I never claimed to want or need DVD/Blu-Ray sales for Twilight, you’re the one who volunteered the information and I declined.
It’s typical that whenever someone is losing an argument to try and change the subject, like bringing up the point of Dark Knight and a midnight record and Twilight DVDs.
Furthermore, I am not disputing the fact that New Moon may have impacted Thursday ratings, but not by any significant impact.
You were going on like New Moon’s debut caused half the people watching television to miss their shows because they had to accompany their underage brats to the theaters.
If I am a Vampire Diaries fan, I disagree with you (with some data on my side). Otherwise, I agree with you completely.
Sorry Joe, You brought up the DVD in bargain bins in 4 months and I offered up sales figures to prove that wrong (DVD and BD have held their value unlike other movies which drop to $10 or less after 45 days on DVD).
Sorry, I just don’t agree that New Moon didn’t have any affect on Thursday Night viewing. Am I saying it was a dramatic role? No, but when you have that many people waiting in line and parents also out it will drop viewership some. The numbers may say otherwise, but there is no way to know how much better they could have been if not for New Moon.
I’m also having a little fun with people here as the internet is in turmoil right now from Batman and Potter fan’s who are pissed New Moon did so well. So take a chill pill.
these two articles on my favorite internet website make me hate the retarted Twilight Sagay even more.
Eric,
go rent ‘Taintlight’. No, really, it just came out and pokes fun at the film. Or buy the Rifftrax for Twilight…some good stuff.
As I said in the other post I can buy into the argument that The Vampire Dairies is down because of New Moon, given the obviously big overlap in audience it would take incredible skills of denial to not admit that’s possible. However I struggle to see the drops elsewhere being blamed on New Moon, FlashForward for example has been dropping every week so why would another drop this week be down to anything other than continued audience desertion? The ratings for Bones meanwhile are always up and down like a yo-yo.
Brad, I mentioned New Moon DVDs being in the bargain bin in four months. Since New Moon has (obviously) not come out on (legal) DVDs, there is no sales figures to prove me wrong.
Sorry, better luck next time. Thanks for playing.
Brad, just so you know, I can’t stand Dark Knight, and I stopped watching Potter movies after the (horrible) fourth. I couldn’t care less than New Moon is breaking records. I just think it’s ridiculous that people actually think New Moon had anything more than a middling effect on VD, and pretty much no effect on anything else. People being stupid in support of their fandom is what bothers me.
“Brad, it doesn’t matter how long the lines were for TV ratings! The number of 18-34 and 18-49 year olds watching TV last night was almost exactly the same as last Thursday!”
You just take your logic and facts and shove them up your …
New Moon is the greatest movie ever, it will cure cancer, create world peace, and top Titanic’s BO numbers is just 1 weekend. I find it arrogant that the networks would even both being one the air last night with New Moon opening a just 1 hour after primetime
So you think New Moon DVD sales will be down when it will likely make more this weekend then Twilight did during its entire run?
You also fail to realize that when the DVD comes out (March – unless they hold back release until Eclipse), it’ll be 3-4 months before Eclipse hit’s Theaters. It’ll have a nice second push at that time as well. New Moon will be in the top 5 DVDs sold in 2010 (like Twilight for 2009). Bargain bin or not (and what do you classify as bargain bin price?) it’ll make Summit a ton of money.
Julia, I’m really not even a huge fan of the films. I watched the first movie, listened to books and have an interest in seeing New Moon. Unlike Joe, I couldn’t even spell Taylor Lanters or Robert Pattersons name unless I looked it up. He seemed to nail it right away;)
Quick question – are any schools off today for an early Thanksgiving holiday? Because no school district near me are off, all the kids had to get up at 6:00 am like always. Which again begs the question – HOW could any high school kid have gone to a midnight show of New Moon unless they were planning on skipping school or getting 3 hours sleep?
Stupid Vampire fad. Dump kids. Southpark had a great spoof on this lame vampire fad!!
What Good parent lets there kid go to a midnight showing of any movie on a school night?
Peter,
School hours vary, but where I am Junior High starts at 9am while HS is 7:30am. Kids either skipped school or just went really, really tired. At my girlfriends office they all went to the midnight show and came into work today with Rockstar’s and Coffee to keep them awake.
Man parents have lost there priorities. Reguardless if school starts at 7:30 or 9:00 kids should not be out till 2 in the morning watching some movie. Nice pareting skills!!
I don’t buy the New Moon excuse for one minute. It’s BS.
I was at a concert last night so I had to dvr all my shows. Maybee that affected the ratings. lol
yea brad is definately a Twilight fan boy
=D
Which is why I have yet to see New Moon…
Bill, I get why you think it wasn’t New Moon, but I’m confused about why you think it was football. You said “Last Thursday’s game drew about 4 million average viewers. No word yet on last night’s game ratings, but they are likely to be somewhat similar.” But if the total number of people watching the football game last night was similar to the number watching last week’s game, why would that have caused a decrease in those watching the broadcast networks from week to week?
I changed my avatar.
While New Moon may not have impacted a lot of shows, it WILL have had an impact on the ratings for the Vampire Diaries. The target audience is the same, and a lot of people are fans of both. Many of them will have skipped Vampire Diaries for one night for the sake of going to the opening of New Moon.
I was wondering why this topic was SO popular already (70 posts!)….then I realized that one person is trolling the thread and decided to hijack it for himself and his Twilight fetish.
*shudder*
pfftt New Moon will not break box office records HAHAHAHAHA!
One of my Facebook “friends” reported getting permission for her young daughter to miss part of school Friday morning so they could go and see New Moon at midnight. I kid you not.
There is a certain portion of the female population that was thinking of nothing but Twilight/New Moon last night. I am of the belief that this population normally watches Vampire Diaries, Grey’s Anatomy, etc. but skipped it for the premiere. I don’t know yet how many people this is, but I am sure it is measurable. I think the DVR #’s will tell the tale.
I’m sure Bill and Robert are thrilled with all the new posters who started accounts just to post in this thread
Just send me a check, guys.
I purchased Twilight yesterday from a bargain bin at BB. It cost me twelve bucks, and that was for the Blu-Ray edition. It was a gift for my wife’s birthday, but the real gift is that I promised to (shudder) watch it with her.
I can see New Moon: Twilight II, Jacob Grows A Testicle (But Just One) having an effect of some type on the CW shows, but that’s about it. And even that effect would very, very small (sort of like that testicle).
Regardless, the networks don’t give a good god damn why the ratings sank. They are looking for shows to attract people, not to be an alternative when nothing else better is on, be it football or a flick in the theaters.
So, this is a ridiculous discussion, because even if Twilight 2: Neweyest Moon, The Curse of Bella’s Curse (and The Vampire Who Loves Chicks On The Curse) did have effect, no one at the networks are cutting anyone any slack for it. At the end of the day, they are going to look at aggregate ratings for the season, and especially for the second half of the season, and make their decisions without ever even considering that one episode was hurt by the sixteen Harry Nillson families that went to see Twylyte: Gnu Moo: Attack of the Killer Vampire Cows and Wildebeests.
By the way, if the argument is that psychotically devoted vampire loving fans lined up hours early (with the tickets they already bought online in hand), then can you explain to me why those psychotically devoted vampire loving fans wouldn’t have waited until 9 pm to leave their houses for a movie that didn’t start until midnight (and for which they likely already had tickets) so that they could express their psychotic vampire loving devotion by WATCHING A SHOW ABOUT VAMPIRES on the CW that needs all the ratings it can get????
The sort of crazed fans you guys are talking about are exactly the type who would be aware enough to know that not watching VD would hurt the one thing to which they are psychotically devoted. Especially if they are Harry Nillson families.
And, yeah, they did probably have tickets already, because many (most??) of those midnight showings sold out over a week ago.
Sense makes not.
I was in front of my TV last night watching anything but the crapfest of New Moon
Are they talking about the ‘New Moon’ movie that didn’t start until 12am last night? Because I can’t see that effecting the 8 and 9pm hours as much as say, the NFL game that started at 8.
Schmoker – How did you get the Blu-ray version for half off the price shown at BestBuy.com?
Shanny – As already stated, people lined up early to get in.
Because I got it at a bargain bin at Blockbuster.
I must say again – welcome all new members! This must have hit some Harry Potter/Dark Knights fan’s RSS reader as there seems to be a ton of new members coming in posting their dislike of the film.
Ahh yes, a delicious used copy from a company on the brink of closing down. Kudos sir!
Brad, it seems you are deluded in a great many ways today! We do not have any influx of links in from Delicious, Stumble Upon, Twitter, Digg, Facebook, etc to this post — at least not yet. But by all means, knock yourself out!
New Moooooooooooooon!!!!!!!!111111111
New Moon’s effect on the Nielsen broadcast television ratings, on a scale of 0 to 10, overall – maybe a 0.2 (and the evidence is that Vampire Diaries would have taken the biggest hit, if there were enough Nielsen families that watched VD that went to stand in line instead)…
…Brett Favre’s effect on the Nielsen broadcast television ratings this season – 11.0 – twice…
…thus maybe they should cast Favre in the New Moon sequel – perhaps $125 million on Thursday midnight showings, and double that from Wisconsin alone if Favre dies a horrible death
They should cast Summer Galu in the Twilight universe.
If I take an idiotic position that’s completely unsupported by facts will people argue with me for nearly a hundred comments too?
Probably.
It’s kept my 12 hour day at work where we’ve had 3 phone calls just fly by. I’d like to thank TVBTN for that.
Either you meant Summer Glau, or Cat Ballou, Brad…
…get your next keyboard from Buy More – only $29.98!
…wait a minute – Glau AND Cat Ballou? The action quotient would increase – and that’s just the violence on screen
Glau.
Too many Rockstar’s for me today
New Moon is siphoning money and attendance from other movies in release it has no effect on television viewing. At an average price of $10 per ticket (probably higher) only 2.3 million people went to see the movie and they all WEREN’T in the theatre at the same time during prime time.
Brad, are you Joss’s Biggest Fan in disguise?
As for the bargain bin, I too saw a Twilight DVD at Blockbuster. It was in their 4 for $20 pile along side My Bloody Valentine and Friday 13th the Final Cut.
Well, although it seems that the only way there could be any documented evidence that a part of the New Moon audience last night would have been home watching VD was to have asked people as they either entered or exited the movie theatre, it does seem reasonable that many of the VD audience probably are genre fans and also like the Twilight series, and could have very well gone to see the movie and left the dvr recording VD. In terms of the whole evening being
down, there are, without a doubt, many different factors, like the football, but that doesn’t mean that New Moon wasn’t one of those factors, even if it may have only been a small one.
Am I the ONLY one in the world who believes Twilight is better suited to be a daytime soap opera rather then a 4-part movie? There are barely ANY references to the fact that the kid is a vampire, not to mention the fact that they effed up the ENTIRE vampire legend/myth, not to mention the fact the the whole movie seems to be shot in one single take, the main character chick falls down, sneezes, coughs, drops things, all in the first 10 minutes, all whilst other characters are talking and even before any of the hardcore action packed special effects crap starts….
“maybe they should cast Favre in the New Moon sequel – perhaps $125 million on Thursday midnight showings, and double that from Wisconsin alone if Favre dies a horrible death”
LOL.
Heck I think most people were watching sports and not New Moon.
lol new moon sucks…i perfered my xbox 360, see look each have there own opinion, deal with it. theres more TV sets in US then there are movie threaters……plus only so many people can watch per threater a night…..it didnt lower viewership for over all TV…lol
This discussion if moronic. Of course New Moon had affected the ratings. If you think that Supernatural and Vampire Diaries were not down due to a competing teen vampire story then you’re a fool, plain and simple.
And it’s really not just tweens, I’m 24 and some of my best friends were dragged to that film because their girlfriends HAD to see it. Some of them went to midnight showings, some of them went to 9pm. But the bottom line is that it’s not simply a concept of “walking in at 11:50″. You have to get ready, meet people, get down there (public transit in Chicago or major cities takes longer than just driving) and maybe you go to dinner. Bottom line, a movie translates into a night out, which, when I go out, is not a night I plan to stay in and watch TV (especially not when I realize I can watch everything on Hulu).
So honestly it was a perfect storm to lower the broadcast ratings: football, New Moon, etc.
And the argument that “the same amount of people watched TV as last week” is perhaps one of the most idiotic ones I’ve ever heard. So because it was the same amount of people it means it was the EXACT SAME PEOPLE right? Makes complete sense, they just ALL stopped watching broadcast this week. There’s no reason to think that this Thursday wouldn’t have been much higher had New Moon not happened.
And before someone attacks me for being a fan of this shit, I don’t have any interest in Twilight at all. But analyzing the numbers, that there’s a chance this could break TDK’s opening weekend and you cannot dismiss the numbers.
Thursdays are getting so boring
Well, if those Twilight dvds are still in that bargain bin, it would probably be a good idea to go and grab one for ten bucks, because this sequel just broke some box office records, and has made $258 million around the world, and that is just up to today, not counting how many more people will see it before they stop counting at the end of Sunday evening, as that progresses around the world. Probably from this point forward, the first movie will be bundled with the second with all sorts of extras. Even if the movie isn’t one’s cup of tea, so to speak, since it is now officially a part of movie history, if one is big on having a movie library with anything that has stood out over the years that they’ve been making movies it seems that it is a movie that should be in such a collection.
I am really not a “fan” of Twilight; I have not read the books or seen either movie, so I am just making some observations.
lainey, that’s not how box office numbers work. The figures released on Sunday morning are estimates for the entire weekend, including all of Sunday. They are subject to change when the actuals are available on Monday.
Also, that’s not how DVDs work, either. You’ll still be able to buy the DVDs separately, even if bundles are available.
And while New Moon did set opening day records, it had a horrible multiplier (less than 2!) and was short of even second place for opening weekend by $11 mil.
A headline from a reputable online news site states “Vampires Here To Stay”.
CBS has to be kicking themselves for canceling “Moonlight”, as well as, Lifetime for canceling “Blood Ties”.
Gidget1828, “CBS has to be kicking themselves for canceling “Moonlight”,”
Unlikely. It was a borderline rated show when it was on. And it was substantially older skewing than it seems for the latest vampire TV shows and movies and may not have been part of the craze at all.