Friday Box Office: 'Lucy' Lashes 'Hercules'
Scarlett Johansson is proving to be a bigger action star than Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
Even disregarding her role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Black Widow, Johansson is proving to be a formidable action draw on her own. Lucy opened to $17.1 million on Friday, making for a projected weekend gross of $45.2 million. Not only is this significantly more than expected for the movie, it's also considerably more than Brett Ratner's Hercules, which came in at a distance No. 2 on Friday with roughly $11 million. This means a weekend gross of between $28-$30 million.
Paramount and MGM are going to need to rely on international markets to make up the difference with Hercules, since it's unlikely they'll make back the film's $100 million budget in the States alone. In its first two days of release, Hercules has earned $6.5 million from 19 markets for an early foreign total of $11.5 million. This brings its projected worldwide total for the weekend to approximately half its budget. Contrast this with Lucy, which is already projected to make back its budget -- and then some. The movie, produced by director Luc Besson's EuropaCorp, cost about $40 million to make.
We'll be back tomorrow with updates on how last week's holdovers are performing. Until then, let us know what you're seeing at the movies, and what you want to see on the big screen.
Credit: Universal