Articles

July 27, 2014
 

EARLY WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: “Lucy” Holds Its Lead Over “Hercules”

 

Allaying concerns about word of mouth, LUCY (Universal) held quite well in its 2d day of release, down 10% from Friday to $15M+ (better than some of the summer’s blockbusters, which fell 15% or more), according to preliminary numbers at Deadline and elsewhere.  That should give it a weekend of $43M+.  (The studios, as usual, can be expected to push their Sunday estimates to the next round number at least.)  Even if Lucy is a one-week wonder, with Guardians of the Galaxy just days away, its costs are moderate enough to make that a hit.

HERCULES (Paramount/MGM), with its younger PG-13 audience, dropped 5% on Saturday to $10.5M and should be at $28M+ for the weekend, an OK opening but not sufficient to pay for its $100M production cost and associated marketing.  We’ll have results from the start of its overseas campaign tomorrow, and that will be more important for its ultimate profitability.  AND SO IT GOES (Clarius) remained on track for a meager $4.5M weekend.

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (20th) led the holdovers, down 55% Saturday-to-Saturday to $6.75M and heading for a $16.5M weekend, with $205-210M in its sights.  THE PURGE: ANARCHY (Universal) is facing a 60% Saturday-to-Saturday drop to $4M and a $10M weekend.  PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE (Disney) dropped about 45% from last Saturday to $3.7M, with a $9M weekend in sight.  SEX TAPE (Columbia/Sony) fell 55% from last Saturday to $2.4M, on its way to a $6M weekend.

 



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."