Scarlett Johansson has been on a roll creatively recently, but finally she'll get a project outside of Marvel Studios that she can dub financially successful. Lucy, the newest project from Luc Besson, has been the center of a super great four month long marketing campaign that has done an excellent job showing Johansson getting into all sorts of violent escapades, as well as making sure Morgan Freeman (an actor that has a knack for getting action films to big results) also has a prominent place in the marketing.
Reviews have been pretty good, but one big obstacle for the movie is that apparently it's very different from what the marketing campaign has presented. I've skipped over specifics in order to avoid spoilers, but whatever it is that makes this different is sure to irk opening weekend audiences, who don't like it when movies are different than what they're promoted as. Still, a big action movie starring a woman is as rare as the sight of Bill Watterson riding a unicorn, so this should still rake up big bucks on opening weekend.
Hercules, a movie that's got the most theaters of any of the newcomers and the presence of the insanely lovable actor Dwayne Johnson, should be a slam-dunk in terms of becoming a summer blockbuster, but it feels like the marketing on this one has been lacking. In terms of Paramounts summer 2014 offerings, it lacks the brand name of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the scale of Trans4mers, instead offering generic action thrills and laughably bad moments. Weirdly, reviews actually aren't awful (admittedly, there's only 20 of them as of 2:20 PM, Thursday July 24, 2014, but still!) but that probably won't be enough to fight off a middling marketing campaign and all of the buzz Lucy has going for it.
In only 1700 theaters in And So It Goes, A Rob Reiner effort starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton that could be good counter-programming towards action-packed movies, but looks dreadfully boring and generic in every single ad it churns out. Look for this one to make very little of an impression this weekend, a fate that looks to befall Wish I Was Here, which looks to go into wide release (no exact theater account at the time of this writing) this weekend. It performed under expectations in limited release last weekend, and that, coupled with terrible reviews, makes me wonder if it can even hit $1 million for the weekend.
Two last new releases this weekend going into moderate limited release are The Fluffy Movie and A Most Wanted Man. The former is a stand-up comedy movie starring Gabriel Iglesias, the latter being one of the last movies Phillip Seymour Hoffman worked on. Both should perform respectably, especially Fluffy which already has a built in-fanbase from prior stand up comedy specials that will come out to see him on the big screen.
Below you can find not only my predictions for this weeks Top 5, but also my opening weekend and final gross predictions for this weeks newcomers (yep, all of them, even A Most Wanted Man and Wish I Was Here)
Lucy
Opening Weekend: $41 million
Total Gross: $110 million
Hercules
Opening Weekend: $22 million
Total Gross: $50 million
As So It Goes
Opening Weekend: $4.3 million
Total Gross: $11 million
Wish I Was Here
Opening Weekend: $900 thousand
Total Gross: $3.5 million
The Fluffy Movie
Opening Weekend: $4 million
Total Gross: $12 million
A Most Wanted Man
Opening Weekend: $1.7 million
Total Gross: $8 million
1) Lucy: $45 million
2) Hercules: $22 million
3) Dawn of The Planet of The Apes: $21 million
4) The Purge: Anarchy: $11 million
5) Planes: Fire And Rescue: $8.5 million
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