It was an action movie heavy weekend with “Lucy” and “Hercules” both opening but in the end “Lucy” was able to top the demi-god. I’m happy that Johansson has been able to continue kicking ass as an action star and from what I’ve heard “Lucy” is a fun movie to watch once you get past the bullshit about using 10% of our brains. It is also the fifth win for Universal Pictures which has had 4 other movies take the top spot on opening weekend this year. I think even with a well loved action star like The Rock that “Hercules” was doomed from the get go because it was another retelling of a familiar story and with a director without much good will. Add on to that the trailer containing all the things that movie goers wanted to see and you begin to understand why it only made $29.8 million. Outside of the top two there wasn’t a lot of good with most movies dropping off 45% and more.
- Lucy: Settling in at $43,899,340 for week one, I expect a solid drop because of all the big films hitting next month. However, it should hit $100 overall.
- Hercules: At $29,800263 and an action heavy August coming I don’t think it makes it to $100 million domestic.
- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: With a 54% drop down to $16,787,260 I think Apes easily makes $200 million domestic but probably not much more.
- The Purge: Anarchy: A massive 65% drop brought this down to $10,482,760 and about $52 million overall.
- Planes: Fire & Rescue: Also with a very large drop of 59% down to $9.529,656.
Next weekend is what I’ve been waiting for all summer, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and after that we will see TMNT and another Aging Action Stars umm I mean “The Expendables 3.”
A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a films success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.
All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.