Fox’s remake of the sci-fi classic “The Day The Earth Stood Still,” starring Keanu Reeves, landed atop the U.S. weekend Box Office with an estimated $31 million in opening grosses.
Warner Brothers’ comedy “Four Christmases” dropped to second place, with $13.3 million over the weekend and an $88 million cumulative take over three weeks of release.
Summit’s vampire romance “Twilight” finished third over the weekend, with an $8 million performance and a $150.1 million cumulative take over four weeks of release.
Industrywide, year-to-date totals for 2008 are outpacing the same portion of 2007 grosses by 1%, at $9.01 billion.
Below …

John Brauer
We now have enough VideoCensus data for some serious trending, and you can’t beat year-over-year trends for insights into how things are evolving. Having spent the past year analyzing and presenting findings from the dataset, I’m thrilled to have the ability to look at how far online video as a medium has come. I plan to use this blog as a forum to address questions coming from our video clients as well as a place to discuss new insights that can be derived from the data on …

Nielsen has issued a year-end look at the most popular trends among Americans during 2008, covering everything from the top TV programs to the most popular consumer packaged goods.
FOX’s “American Idol” was the top TV program of 2008, according to Nielsen.  Tuesday night broadcasts of “American Idol,” through December 7, drew 15.5% of U.S. TV households, on average, while Wednesday night “American Idol” broadcasts drew an average of 15.3% of all TV households.
Viewers with DVR access gave NBC’s “Heroes” the biggest bump any primetime program received in 2008.  The average …

Nielsen has issued a year-end look at the most popular trends among Americans during 2008, covering everything from the top TV programs to the most popular consumer packaged goods.
Up first: movies and DVDs. 
Action and adventure ruled the box office in 2008.  “The Dark Knight,” “Iron Man,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” were the top three box office earners this past year, taking in a combined $1.16 billion through December 7.
Among DVD releases, action and adventure flicks also fared well, with “Iron Man” and “I Am Legend” …

Sales in British supermarkets picked up during the last two weeks of November, as shoppers turned their backs on convenience stores and the high street retailers in favor of larger purchases at larger, value-oriented hypermarkets, Nielsen reported Tuesday. 
Year-over-year growth at hypermarkets reached 6% during the period, while the smallest convenience outlets declined by almost 2% during the 12-week period.
In comparison, year-over-year growth in the British grocery sector stood at 3.2% during the 12 weeks ending 29 November, according to Nielsen.  Grocery multiples showed stronger growth (+5.6%) during the period.
“In order …

Microsoft’s Xbox is the most buzzed about game console so far this holiday season, Nielsen Online reported Thursday.
The Xbox 360 garnered the largest share of online buzz between November 1 and December 9, with 41.6% of blog messages mentioning Xbox, Wii or Playstation.
In comparison, Nintendo’s Wii was mentioned in 29.8% of game console blog messages, while Sony’s Playstation ranked third with mentions in 28.6% of gaming-related blog posts.

National Ratings [updated 12/12]
Last Saturday’s SEC Championship added another notch to a record-breaking year in sports television. The Florida Gators defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide in front of 15.1 million CBS viewers and 9.3% of the nation’s households, making it the most watched SEC Championship ever and the highest rating for a non-bowl college game since 2006.
Meanwhile, ABC’s Saturday Night Football had its own share of ratings success with six of the top seven rated contests this season. The network averaged 8.2 million viewers and a 5.0 household rating for …

The Internet played an important role in the 2008 election campaign, so it’s no surprise that on Election Day, people used multiple news sources to follow results.  By combining television and Internet samples through a process known as fusion, Nielsen provides new data showing how the two media worked together to meet the demand for election news updates.
A total of 163.6 million adults sought election coverage from either television or the Internet — or both. This shows the unduplicated or cumulative audience that used one or the other medium for at …

From October to November 2008, online consumer references to a potential government bailout of U.S. domestic automotive manufacturers grew by more than 380%, according to an analysis of auto-related blog discussions released Wednesday by Nielsen Online.
In mid-November, following GM released its quarterly earnings report – which highlighted the gravity of the Big Three Automakers’ financial situation, and online consumers began comparing the potential auto bailout to the U.S. government’s bailout of the financial industry or the Chapter 11 benefits/consequences of the airline industry.
Around November 21, the first Congressional bailout hearings spurred consumers’ opinions …

Almost one-quarter of all U.S. television households (23.3%) own a high definition TV set as of Nov. 30, Nielsen reported Thursday.
Nielsen’s estimates are based on a field staff review that identified TV sets capable of receiving and displaying high definition pictures, as well as those that are actually receiving those signals.
High definition TV penetration in the U.S. has more than doubled since July 2007, when Nielsen began tracking HDTV status.  At that time, only 10% of U.S. homes had access to high definition TV.

Month/Year
% of U.S. Households
With HDTV

November 2008
23.3%

October 2008
22.2%

September 2008
21.3%

August …