Good Morning and Happy Monday to ya!  A slew of praise happening as we finish out the year.  So, let’s continue that trend!  A lot of people were talking about this over the weekend. It wasn’t the top grossing movies, but the most successful ones that got the most bang for their buck and North Carolina has 4 on the list, three of which were shot right here in Wilmywood.  Here are the top 9 most lucrative movies of 2013, according to The Wrap: So congrats to the cast and crew of: The Conjuring, Bad Grandpa, We’re the Millers and IM3!  Don’t know what ROI means?  It’s Return Of Investment.  The Wrap explains it in simple terms:

To calculate ROI for a movie, you take how much it grossed, subtract how much it cost and then divide that figure by how much it cost. For example, “Insidious: Chapter 2″ cost $5 million to make. It grossed $160.4 million. So here’s how we did it: $160.4M- $5M = $155.4M. $155.4M/$5M = 31.1.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE NOW!

Our beloved CBS series Under the Dome is among the honorees at Variety’s upcoming Breakthrough of the Year Awards, which will be held Thursday January 9th in Las Vegas at the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).  Dean Norris will be on hand to accept the award. CES is the world’s largest electronics show.  It will attract more than 150,000 attendees and will have close to 3,000 exhibitors. It runs January 7th through the 10th.  READ THE STORY AT VARIETY.COM

I know stories similar to this one have already come out, but when our shows get kudos, you deserve to know. The Global Dispatch reports that due to Amazon’s $700,000 per episode buy,  it made the show profitable before it even aired. (The Amazon licensing deal partnership along with international rights made “Under the Dome” an insanely profitable enterprise, again, before it even aired. ) Because of these factors, the UTD team had less stress with how they crafted the show. Rachelle LeFevre said it best:

“There wasn’t as much pressure,” The CBS execs “were able to make big, ballsy decisions as a result, and success is what comes from that.”

Of course it didn’t hurt that the show was an instant hit.  It was the most watched summer series in more than twenty years.  Nielsen tallied up the live viewing as well as the DVR numbers and estimated that the show averaged 15+million viewers.  Amazon picked up season two, 9 months before it will air, 6 months before filming begins on season two.  That Amazon will continue with the same kind of licensing deal, exclusive domain for the online streaming of the episodes four days after they air.   READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE NOW!

Now onto our other successful television show that has made its home here in Wilmywood. Laurel Brown (@DocBrown_TV) did a great piece as part of Zap2It‘s Year in Review.  It was definitely the Year of the Witch. Laurel highlights some of the best of the best from this years television shows and suggests who could beat up who.  She leaves us with the question: “Will the “Sleepy Hollow” witches dominate 2014?” Awesome Laurel!  It’s a fun piece.  READ IT NOW.

And speaking of some great cast, Lyndie Greenwood says good-bye to Wilmywood:

Nicole Beharie also said good-bye over the weekend as well.  It looks like today just might be the last day of filming the EPIC season finale! Well, that’s the plan anyway! And sorry, I cannot reveal who is left filming.  Wouldn’t wanna spoil the finale for ya!  They never shoot in sequential order anyway, but I’d rather not accidentally give anything away.  We will just have to wait until January 20th to see who is left standing!

Make sure to give some major Happy Birthday Shoutouts to our superstar Kenny Effin’ Powers aka Danny McBride!  He turned 37 yesterday.

• Best Thing to Happen in ILM 2013:  Film/TV Production, Ziggy’s Opening, California Roots: Carolina Sessions.
• Best Local Independent Film: Pieces of Talent, Bound by Sea, Children of Salt
• Best Local Filmmaker: Joe Stauffer, Keith Welborn, Brannigan Carter.
• Best Blog: The Wilmywood Daily, Port City Foodies, Girls Gone Gluten Free

You can vote until January 15th! So, go on get to votin‘!!

TV.com’s “Best Of” is ongoing, and the site has our NC shot television shows on the list. Under the Dome, Sleepy Hollow, Homeland, Banshee and Eastbound and Down. Check out all the NC Nominees and VOTE!  Voting ends Thursday, January 2nd!

That just about does it for me; I will have more Wilmywood updates for you tomorrow morning (unless something breaks). Got Scoop?  Email me: sheila_brothers@yahoo.com.  Or message me on Wilmywood’s FB .  You can also just post your comments below!  Until then, that’s a wrap!!