It was an interesting weekend at the box office, as two films tried to salvage what is shaping up to be the worst domestic summer movie season in eight years. The contenders were Hercules, starring Dwayne Johnson as the iconic hero, and Lucy, with Scarlett Johansson in the titular role. Hercules is a full-on blockbuster, complete with sprawling CGI effects and veteran moneymaker Brett Ratner at the helm. Lucy is about a third of the way to an action movie, but far more toned down when you compare it to the bellowing cries of Dwayne Johnson as he slays all manner of giant beasts. And yet, Lucy won the weekend while Hercules was a relatively not-close second place. Lucy brought in $44M while Hercules had $28M.
What happened here?
There are a few factors at play here, and you can debate the star power of Scarjo vs. The Rock all day long. But what I think it comes down to in this case more than anything else is marketing, pure and simple. Lucy had an amazing trailer, and you should give it a watch here. Hercules? Less so. It’s a lot of yelling and action, but it’s not cut very well, and doesn’t really give a clear picture of what the film is about, other than The Rock killing things. I would argue the disparity in these two trailers alone is enough to count for the box office gap. I’ve been to many movies over the past few months and seen these trailers run many times. The reaction after Lucy from the audience around me was always “I want to see that!” For Hercules, it was usually “huh.”
And it very well may be the case the Hercules is a better film. It currently has a fresh 62% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while Lucy dipped into a rotten 57%. Five percent may not be a huge difference, but there’s a cut-off line for a reason. Lucy ended up taking a cool concept and doing a lot of rather dumb things with it. Hercules seems to be taking a relatively dumb concept, and making it work regardless. But marketing painted a different picture. Lucy looked like a smart thriller, while Hercules was just a mindless blockbuster.
Perhaps there are other factors at play here, like how audiences loved Limitless and wanted to see more done with the “brain expansion concept.” Or maybe there hasn’t been a good sword and sandals epic since Gladiator (arguable). But for me, it comes down to how these two movies were sold, which may have created an almost misleading impression of each.
The most interesting box office story of the month however will undoubtedly be Guardians of the Galaxy, currently sitting at a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. But will that be enough to get audiences in seats? Yes, it’s Marvel/Disney, but it’s a cast of unknown superheroes led by the relatively untested Chris Pratt, it hides two of its biggest stars behind CGI characters (Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel) and the other two are in massive amounts of make-up (Dave Bautista and Zoe Saldana). All of this comes with a $200M production budget, with a sequel already greenlit and an animated series on the way, Marvel is confident in its success.
We’ll keep an eye on Lucy and Hercules regardless, and I’m curious to see how each will do overseas, as both were filmed internationally.
[Photos via Paramount/Universal]
