Scarlett Johansson Defeats The Rock at Weekend Box Office

[JamesG]

Weekend Report: Lucy Wins Brain vs. Brawn Battle
by Ray Subers
July 27, 2014


Scarlett Johansson easily out-muscled Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson on the final weekend of a very weak month at the box office.

In another big win for Universal Pictures, Lucy took first place with over $44 million. Meanwhile, Hercules had to settle for runner-up with a lukewarm $29 million debut.

Overall, the Top 12 earned an estimated $134.6 million this weekend; that's down 15 percent from the same frame last year.







Lucy's opening weekend didn't quite match similar movies like Wanted ($50.9 million) or Taken 2 ($49.5 million).

The fact that it even came close, though, is a fairly remarkable feat for this moderately-budgeted original action movie. Among other similar titles, it crushed The Bourne Legacy ($38.1 million) and Salt ($36 million).



It's also the fourth Universal Pictures release to open north of $35 million this year; the other three are Lone Survivor, Ride Along and Neighbors.

This is even more impressive considering all four titles are "original" (i.e. not sequels, prequels or spin-offs) and three of the four are rated R. It's also their fifth first place opening of the year — the previously listed titles, plus Non-Stop — which is tied with 20th Century Fox.



Lucy's success can be attributed to a few factors. First, the movie had an intriguing premise (what if we could use more than 10% of our brains?) that was front-and-center in action-packed, visually-stunning advertisements.

It helped that actress Scarlett Johansson's lead role here seemed like a natural extension of the butt-kicking brand she's built as Black Widow in The Avengers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Recognizing that audiences were connecting with the material, Universal made the savvy decision to move Lucy up from mid-August — where it would have been in a Guardians/Turtles/Expendables sandwich — to this less-competitive late July date.



Lucy's audience was split evenly between men and women, and 65 percent of moviegoers were over the age of 25. It received a "C+" CinemaScore, which suggests word-of-mouth will be mixed.

Still, it's a safe bet that Lucy winds up earning at least $100 million.







Opening at 3,595 theaters, Hercules took second place this weekend with an estimated $29 million. That's not a particularly strong start: in comparison, star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's The Scorpion King opened to $36 million over 12 years ago.

It also started off a bit lower than Wrath of the Titans ($33.5 million) and Immortals ($32.2 million).



Still, it could have been much worse: the movie's sword-and-sandals, CGI-heavy action looked fairly generic, as did the movie's run-of-the-mill story (are moviegoers all that interested in the untold story of Hercules?).

The fact that Hercules got close to $30 million is a testament to The Rock's ability to mobilize his massive fanbase. He's been aggressively promoting the movie since filming began last year, and the message connected with at least some of his 37-million-plus Facebook fans and 7 million-plus Twitter followers.



The audience for Hercules was 58 percent male and 64 percent over the age of 25. They gave the movie a decent "B+" CinemaScore.

With tough competition from Guardians of the Galaxy coming up, Hercules has zero chance of making it to $100 million; still, it should eventually make it past $75 million.







After holding well last weekend, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes took a beating from the two newcomers. The simian sequel fell 55 percent to an estimated $16.4 million, which brings its 17-day total to $172.1 million.

In a few days, Dawn will pass Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($176.8 million), and remains on pace for at least $210 million total.







The Purge: Anarchy added $9.9 million this weekend, which represents a steep 67 percent drop from its opening. In comparison, the first Purge fell 76 percent in its second weekend.

Anarchy has now earned $51.3 million, and should ultimately close ahead of the first movie's $64.5 million total.







Planes: Fire & Rescue rounded out the Top Five with $9.3 million (down 47 percent).

Sex Tape plummeted 59 percent to $6 million.

Michael Douglas/Diane Keaton rom-com And So It Goes opened at 1,762 theaters and earned $4.6 million.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3880&p=.htm









July 25-27, 2014 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. Lucy $44,025,000
2. Hercules $29,000,000
3. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes $16,400,000 / $172,089,000
4. The Purge: Anarchy $9,896,000 / $51,272,000
5. Planes: Fire & Rescue $9,303,000 / $35,121,000
6. Sex Tape $5,975,000 / $26,877,000
7. Transformers: Age of Extinction $4,600,000 / $236,352,000
8. And So It Goes $4,552,000
9. Tammy $3,400,000 / $78,147,000
10. A Most Wanted Man $2,717,000

[ABlairican Pie]

It's become a trend in Hollywood recently to turn the focus away from strongman-type action movies and instead focus on tripe like teen gothic vampire romance films, for example, instead. It's rather disappointing. People used to like a muscle-bound action hero, and now the spotlight is on touchy-feely teenybopper Gen-Y fare, like, y'know, dudes with kinda, undead issues 'n' stuff.

I think the idea was to have The Rock reprise the role made popular back in the 50's with legendary bodybuilder Steve Reeve as Hercules. I'm not sure if the overkill of CGI, etc., in the new film may have hurt its chances of success.