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tomatometer:

58% Lucy

63% Hercules (2014)

91% Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

56% The Purge: Anarchy

43% Planes: Fire & Rescue
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15% And So It Goes
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91% A Most Wanted Man
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56% The Fluffy Movie

metacritic:





*click pic(s) for source*

‘Lucy’ Outmuscles ‘Hercules’ With $44 Mil.

Scarlett Johansson overpowered Dwayne Johnson at the box office, as “Lucy” racked up $44 million compared to “Hercules’” $29 million bow this weekend.

It’s a big win for Johansson, solidifying her as an action star to rival Angelina Jolie. “Lucy” ranks as her largest non-Marvel opening, edging out 2009′s “He’s Just Not That Into You” ($27.8 million). It’s been a very good few months for Johansson, who scored critical raves for playing a sultry, Siri-like voice in “Her” and a conflicted alien seductress in “Under the Skin,” and made bank reprising her role as Black Widow in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier.”

“Her bankability is beyond reproach and her street cred is beyond comparison,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Rentrak. “She can bounce gracefully between indie movies and esoteric movies and then rise to the top box office charts.”

Universal acquired “Lucy” for $40 million, which makes its opening a substantial accomplishment for a modestly priced thriller. The film, which centers on a woman who gets injected with a drug that allows her to access the other, unused 90% of her brain, debuted across 3,173 locations.

Showcasing a gun-wielding Johansson helped broaden the film’s base beyond the younger males who typically turn out for action flicks. The film’s opening audience was evenly divided between men and women and skewed older, with 65% of the audience clocking in at age 25 and older.

“It just looked different from what’s out there,” said Nikki Rocco, Universal Pictures president of domestic distribution. “We had everybody’s interest with this movie. The marketing said you’re going to have a good time with this movie.”

Going into the weekend, it looked like “Hercules” might become the summer’s first true mega-flop, but the Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release beat back the bad buzz and opened above tracking that pegged a debut in the low $20 million range. It helped that reviews for the picture were solid, with the son of Zeus story scoring a 63% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Brett Ratner directed the film, which cost $100 million to produce, so the picture will need to perform well abroad if it wants to turn a profit. “Hercules” unspooled in 3,595 locations stateside, and launched in 26 international markets and approximately 3,400 locations grossing $28.7 million through Sunday.

“The domestic grosses are below what we hoped, but it was an excellent gross globally,” said Rob Moore, vice-chairman of Paramount Pictures. “When you look at how strong those international numbers were, it bodes well for the rollout.”

Moore noted that originally “Hercules” had been slated to go up against “Sex Tape” and “Jupiter Ascending,” but date shifts left if fending off “Lucy,” and splitting the action audience. Overseas, the film still has a number of major territories left to open, including in Latin America, Japan and Europe, and the Paramount vice-chair predicts it will top $200 million at the foreign box office.

“The film testifies to the continuing power of Dwayne Johnson globally,” Moore said.

The other major wide release, “And So It Goes” failed to find a counter-programming sweet spot. The geriatric rom-com starred Diane Keaton and Michael Douglas but only eked out $4.5 million across 1,762 locations. Clarius Entertainment produced the picture.

Alas, the summer box office doldrums showed no sign of abating. The weekend was down 13% from the year-ago period when “The Wolverine” sliced up $53 million in its opening frame. This stands to be the worst summer from a ticket sales perspective in eight years.

Last weekend’s returning champ, “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” fell 55% to $16.3 million, while “The Purge: Anarchy” dropped a steep 67% to $9.9 million in its second week of release. Horror tends to be a front-loaded genre, and “The Purge” sequel’s fall was less dramatic than the first picture’s 75.6% drop, putting the two films roughly neck-in-neck at similar points in their release cycles. “Anarchy” has grossed $51.3 million while the first “Purge” had netted $51.9 million after two weeks in theaters.

Among other holdovers, “Planes: Fire & Rescue” showed staying power and benefited from lack of family-film competition, dropping 47% to add another $9.3 million to its pot. “Sex Tape” suffered a steeper fall, declining 59% to grab $5.9 million.

Of the limited releases, Woody Allen’s “Magic in the Moonlight” debuted to $425,730 on 17 screens, accounting for a decent $25,043 per-screen average, while “Boyhood” expanded to 107 theaters, picking up $1.7 million and brining its total to $4.1 million.

All in all, think of this weekend as something of a throat-clearing before “Guardians of the Galaxy” debuts on Aug. 1, providing the best chance to end a dispiriting summer on a high-note.

*click pic for full list/source*


*click pic for source*

 

[Dabanton]

Lucy already in the money

 

[Lebron]

Rock got Black Widow'd

 

[ItIsOkBro]

Lucy budget surprisingly low.

 

[FTF]

Damn impressive opening weekend for Lucy. Also will become Besson's highest grossing film (domestically) in less than a week.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

ScarJo powers activate

 

[Blackstarhat]

lucy is a terrible movie

 

[Jarnet87]

Only Europe can save Hercule now.

 

[- J - D -]

Cool, now give Scarlet her own Black Widow movie.

 

[G-Fex]

I've never loved Scarlett Johanson as much as I do right now.

Cheers for Hercules failure!

 

[Gentleman Jack]

Lucy budget surprisingly low.

Not that surprising if you've seen the film's special effects.

 

[aparisi2274]

Wish I Was Here was the best movie I've seen all year.

 

[Mix Master]

Only Europe can save Hercule now.

B,But all the people who wanted to see the film already have

 

[TrumanBurbank]

Wish I Was Here was the best movie I've seen all year.

 

[ryutaro's mama]

DMczaf, The Rock can't even claim "the #1 action movie in America" moral victory.

 

[BlazinAm]

Not that surprising if you've seen the film's special effects.

Yeah yeah yeah.

 

[anaron]

R rated female action sci-fi film taking the number one spot, dominating over yet another male action film

 

[RBH]

DMczaf, The Rock can't even claim "the #1 action movie in America" moral victory.

But at least it's the #1 male action movie in America!

 

[Road]

So, yeah, Maleficent has passed CA2 and ASM2 worldwide...

1 Transformers: Age of Extinction Par. $966.4
2 X-Men: Days of Future Past Fox $737.4
3 Maleficent BV $715.0
4 Captain America: The Winter Soldier BV $713.0
5 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Sony $706.3


How many Hercules movies can you release in one year?

The Legend of Hercules LG/S $61.3
Hercules (2014) Par. $57.7

The Rock is $4 million away from beating the other one.

http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?view2=worldwide&yr=2014&p=.htm

 

[JdFoX187]

lucy is a terrible movie

Second best movie of the summer behind Godzilla.

 

[KalBalboa]

lucy is a terrible movie

That's all I've been hearing.

 

[BumRush]

This pretty much ensures a Black Widow movie, right?

 

[Blackstarhat]

Second best movie of the summer behind Godzilla.

godzilla was amazing i saw that 3 times in imax ill give you that.

 

[ReturnOfTheRAT]

Wish I Was Here was the best movie I've seen all year.

It's very good and quite funny.

 

[George Oscar Bluth II]

I had no idea Lucy was rated R.

 

[JdFoX187]

I had no idea Lucy was rated R.

Mainly just for the blood. Don't remember any nudity or language. I was expecting some Looper style raining blood scenes with her powers, but nope. But I'm all for it being R and being successful. Maybe finally show Hollywood a properly budgeted (lol) R rated action film can still sell.

 

[Blackstarhat]

I had no idea Lucy was rated R.

its very tame for an r rating its probbley becuase of the body count.

 

["God's Beard!"]

lucy is a terrible movie

And Edge of Tomorrow bombed ;_;

 

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Mainly just for the blood. Don't remember any nudity or language. I was expecting some Looper style raining blood scenes with her powers, but nope. But I'm all for it being R and being successful. Maybe finally show Hollywood a properly budgeted (lol) R rated action film can still sell.

I just checked the UK rating and it's 12A, which is sort of like PG-13. This means further success for the film, which I find kind of funny.

 

[Akahige]

Wish I Was Here was the best movie I've seen all year.

Opposite for me.

 

[Blackstarhat]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";122893564]And Edge of Tomorrow bombed ;_;[/QUOTE]

yeah i blame the marketing the movie is a tough sell. Best movie of the summer until GOG is out.

 

[kswiston]

So, yeah, Maleficent has passed CA2 and ASM2 worldwide...

1 Transformers: Age of Extinction Par. $966.4
2 X-Men: Days of Future Past Fox $737.4
3 Maleficent BV $715.0
4 Captain America: The Winter Soldier BV $713.0
5 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Sony $706.3


How many Hercules movies can you release in one year?

The Legend of Hercules LG/S $61.3
Hercules (2014) Par. $57.7

The Rock is $4 million away from beating the other one.

http://boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?view2=worldwide&yr=2014&p=.htm

Maleficent seems to have a decent shot at beating Days of Future Past's worldwide total.

It is also less than $3M away from overtaking Oz domestically despite the smaller opening. A 3.1x opening weekend multiplier is pretty impressive for a summer film that opened to nearly $70M.

 

[Timbuktu]

its very tame for an r rating its probbley becuase of the body count.

Also pretty racist.

 

[neogaffer1]

How likely is Apes hitting 200M domestically?

 

[KissVibes]

Wonder if DC is having second thoughts about Rocky staring in a superhero film for them.

 

[KalBalboa]

Wonder if DC is having second thoughts about him staring in a superhero film for them.

Hercules looked weak for many non-Dwayne Johnson reasons.

 

[FTF]

How likely is Apes hitting 200M domestically?

100%

 

[kswiston]

Apes dropped a lot harder than most people were expecting this weekend. I guess the combo of Lucy and Herc was enough to eat into its main demographic. Third weekend drop was actually worse than its second weekend drop.

That said, Apes benefit from strong summer weekdays and after 3 weekends, the film has already caught up to Amazing Spider-Man 2 after the same period of time.

We continue our summer without a true box office bomb. Herc did well enough for its budget, and Lucy is clearly a big hit.

 

[TheAbsolution]

That's a very good start for Lucy this weekend.
Good, the movie was pretty decent.

That stat about it skewing a little older rang very true for me.
Lots of older couples in my movie theater.

 

[Krauser Kat]

R rated female action sci-fi film taking the number one spot, dominating over yet another male action film

This is the reason everyone should root for LUCY we need more of these movies, hopefully with a more coherent plot next time. I have faith in Marvel to make at least 2 female driven movies in the coming years.

 

[Bob White]

Don't care how shitty Lucy is, I'm happy Luc Besson has a number one movie again.

 

[Blackstarhat]

Also pretty racist.

how is it racist ?

 

[DarkFlow]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";122893564]And Edge of Tomorrow bombed ;_;[/QUOTE]
No it didn't, it made $359 million WW. You guys have no idea what a bomb is.

 

[kswiston]

No it didn't, it made $359 million WW. You guys have no idea what a bomb is.

Nothing has bombed this summer. The last bomb we had was Transcendence in April

 

[DarkFlow]

Nothing has bombed this summer. The last bomb we had was Transcendence in April

Don't tell some posters that, they think everything is a "Bomba".

 

[Timbuktu]

how is it racist ?

One scene in particular rubbed me the wrong way

Spoiler

Lucy shooting an innocent Taiwanese cab driver in the face just because he couldn't speak English, and it was played for laughs.

 

[Escape Goat]

Don't tell some posters that, they think everything is a "Bomba".

No it didn't, it made $359 million WW. You guys have no idea what a bomb is.

Tom Cruise, is that you?

 

[Blackstarhat]

One scene in particular rubbed me the wrong way

Spoiler

Lucy shooting an innocent Taiwanese cab driver in the face just because he couldn't speak English, and it was played for laughs.

i guess theres that and she kills nothing but asains in the film.

 

[BronsonLee]

Wonder if DC is having second thoughts about Rocky staring in a superhero film for them.

Highly unlikely. And besides he's probably Black Adam anyways

Nothing has bombed this summer. The last bomb we had was Transcendence in April

We were spared Jupiter Ascending!

 

[JdFoX187]

One scene in particular rubbed me the wrong way

Spoiler

Lucy shooting an innocent Taiwanese cab driver in the face just because he couldn't speak English, and it was played for laughs.

She shot him in the leg. You hear him say "oh, my leg" or something like that when they pull out.