In terms of new releases, this weekend’s box office battle really came down to which big-chested movie star you wanted to see beat people up. Scarlett Johansson destroyed The Rock in that battle, where it also didn’t take 100% of your brain to know that a Luc Besson movie was probably going to be better than a Brett Ratner movie. There was also the matter of there having been another Hercules movie barely six months ago… Long story short, ‘Hercules’ was probably set up for failure, and the fact that it managed to gross $29 million against ‘Lucy’s $44 million (domestically) is actually pretty okay.
It should also be noted, of course, that ‘Hercules’ cost $100 million to make against ‘Lucy’s $40 (though ‘Hercules’ also earned another $28.7 million overseas, where ‘Lucy’ hasn’t yet opened). The latter is now the biggest opening film in either Besson’s or Johansson’s career.
Not that people really liked it that much…
The film’s marketing highlights a wholly different movie, selling a sci-fi heavy character drama about a young woman unwillingly given a drug that basically unlocks her brain and transforms her into a higher form of human as a “Watch Scarlett Johansson use super powers to kick righteous butt!” action picture. What action the film contains is mostly revealed in the trailer, so the fact that the film received a C+ from Cinemascore is actually surprising. [Forbes]
Meanwhile, Paramount hid ‘Hercules’ from critics like it was… well, like it was a Brett Ratner movie… scheduling press screenings about five hours before the official opening. They might not have worried, however, as the 63% of the critics who did see it recommended it. Which is astonishing if you’ve read Laremy’s review.
I guess it’s just hard to hate this face:
And hey, did you know there was a Rob Reiner movie starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton movie opening this weekend? Neither did anyone else! ‘So It Goes‘ opened to $4.55 million on 1762 screens (for comparison, ‘Boyhood‘ has thus far opened on only 107 screens). Shockingly, the strategy of giving a movie aimed at moms a generic, nearly-impossible-to-remember title (From the ‘And So Something Goes As Good As It’s Gotta Give’ school of Diane Keaton titles) turned out to be not such a great one.
There was also a new Woody Allen movie out this weekend in a few early locations, ‘Magic In The Moonlight,’ which earned about $25k per screen on 17 screens. Here’s a fun game: show this picture to an older person and ask them what year they think the film came out in:
Sweet Jesus.
Here’s a clip from it. And yes, Emma Stone (25) is playing Colin Firth’s (53) love interest, because Woody Allen long ago stopped giving a f*ck.
Woof. Get it? He’s a by-the-book businessy Facty Facterson and she’s a Loopty Loopety free spirit with her head in the clouds. This looks like ‘Along Came Polly’ after it came back from a semester abroad. And married its professor.
Thank the Gods we’ve got ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ coming next week.
via BoxOfficeMojo, Forbes