Disney’s “High School Musical 3: Senior Year” spent its second straight weekend at the top of the Box Office charts, although the film grossed 64% less than its opening total last week.
The Weinstein Co.’s R-rated comedy “Zack and Miri,” starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, opened with $10.7 million.
In overall Box Office results, the weekend’s $84 million gross was a considerable 37% decline from grosses rung up over the same weekend last year, according to Nielsen EDI. 
Below are Box Office totals for the weekend of October 31- November 2, 2008, from Nielsen EDI.

RANK
FILM
STUDIO
WEEKEND
GROSS(MILLIONS)

1
High …

CBS’s “NCIS” special, “Numbers,” and “Ghost Whisperer” claimed the top three slots in Nielsen’s ranking of the top primetime telecasts on broadcast TV for Friday, October 31, 2008.
ABC’s “20/20″ and NBC’s “Deal Or No Deal” rounded out the top five.

Rank
Program
Network
Viewers (P2+)

1
NCIS FRIDAY 9PM SPECIAL(S)-10/31/2008
CBS
11,238,000

2
NUMB3RS
CBS
10,722,000

3
GHOST WHISPERER
CBS
9,403,000

4
20/20-FRI
ABC
6,953,000

5
DEAL OR NO DEAL-FRI
NBC
4,878,000

6
SMARTER THAN 5TH GRADER
FOX
4,628,000

7
DON’T FORGET THE LYRICS
FOX
4,539,000

8
SUPERNANNY
ABC
4,118,000

9
CRUSOE
NBC
4,088,000

10
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE FRI
UNI
4,055,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (October 31, 2008).

Overall, CBS won the night with an average audience of just over 10.4 million viewers, while ABC took second place with just over 4.8 million average viewers. …

Television viewing on Election Night has changed dramatically over the years, considering the expansion of technology and the number of different channels available to the average home. In 1960 for example, in the close race between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, most U.S. homes had only a few channels available so the Election Night returns captured virtually all the audience with more than 65% of all homes tuning in. Now with more than 40 channels available to the average home, the percentage of homes watching political coverage …

Olympics sponsors and their competitors ramped up their August ad budgets to maximize their exposure during the month of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
But according to Nielsen, many of China’s advertisers took a break from advertising in August, sending overall ad spending in China tumbling to levels last seen in May 2008, when the Sichuan earthquake hit and advertising was suspended for three days.
Advertising spending in China grew, year over year, by just 7% in August, Nielsen reported Monday.  In comparison, China’s ad spending grew by an average of 19% in the seven …

In-cinema advertising accounted for a fraction (0.3%) of all U.S. ad spending in 2007.  But according to Nielsen PreView, advertisers may want to consider increasing the presence of cinema advertising within their media mix.
For one thing, cinema audiences are literally “captive” — changing the channel isn’t an option, and there are few distractions.
Moviegoers also tend to have more disposable income than average Americans.  They purchase consumer electronics — XBoxes, DVD players, and Blu-Ray players — at far higher rates than the rest of the population, and many are voracious consumers of other entertainment …

CI SUMMARY: More consumers are obese than ever before, and the future does not look bright. Consumers have responded by checking nutrition labels more and embracing creative weight-loss methods. But the level of concern about weight and healthy lifestyles varies by consumer segment. A solid understanding of obese consumers and their self perceptions may prove to be key in helping marketers create products and programs that tackle this problem head on.

CI SUMMARY: Asians in the U.S. are often overlooked by marketers due to the tremendous growth of the Hispanic population. However, marketers will need to dig deep in order to reach this rapidly growing segment, who speak many different languages and have diverse cultural backgrounds as compared with the Hispanic consumer. While most Hispanics in the U.S. come from either Mexico or Latin America and share at least some parts of their culture, Asians do not. The strong cultural differences between persons from Japan, China, and India impact their tastes and how they approach their lives in the U.S.