Guradians of the Galaxy Defeats Lucy

Guardians of the Galaxy arrived with a bang last weekend (Aug. 1-3) with a stronger than expected start of $94.32 million. The 3D sci-fi superhero film from Disney Entertainment and Marvel Studios soared past pre-release expectations, which had tended to range anywhere from $65 million to $80 million. Without adjusting for ticket price inflation, Guardians of the Galaxy set a new August opening record. The previous high-mark was the $69.28 million debut of The Bourne Ultimatum back in 2007.

Gamora (Zoe Saldana) (l to r), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), Peter Quill/Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) and Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) from Guardians of the Galaxy. (Photo: Marvel Studios)

Guardians of the Galaxy delivered the third largest opening weekend performance of 2014 to date behind only Transformers: Age of Extinction and Captain America: The Winter Solider. That Guardians of the Galaxy was able to open nearly on par with the $95.02 million debut of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, despite being a non-sequel based on a far less known pre-established property is quite the achievement and is a very strong sign for future Disney and Marvel projects heading into the future. However, it is still very possible that the film could be front-loaded given the nature of comic book adaptations in general and a number of new films that will provide direct competition in the weeks ahead including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,Let’s Be Cops and The Expendables 3.

Universal Pictures’ Lucy dropped to a distant second last weekend with $18.25 million. The modestly budgeted sci-fi action film starring Scarlett Johansson was down a sharp 58 percent from its opening weekend. Lucy was obviously hurt in a big way by the break-out performance of Guardians of the Galaxy and the film’s lukewarm word of mouth didn’t help matters either last weekend. With that said, Lucy continues to exceed expectations with a strong 10-day start of $79.54 million.

Fellow Universal release Get on Up opened in third with $13.59 million. The James Brown biopic starring Chadwick Boseman opened below expectations, as it too was likely hurt a bit by the breakout start of Guardians of the Galaxy. Get on Up was unable to excite moviegoers anywhere near to the same extent as last year’s 42, which also starred Boseman. Get on Up debuted 51 percent softer than the $27.49 million debut of 42.

On the heels of its opening weekend’s stronger than expected start, Hercules tumbled in its second weekend with a fourth place take of $11.01 million. The Dwayne Johnson led 3D action-adventure film from Paramount and MGM was down 63 percent from the previous weekend. While Hercules was always extremely likely to be front-loaded to begin with, the competition from Guardians of the Galaxy obviously took an extra toll on the film. Hercules continues to perform ahead of its relatively modest expectations with a 10-day start of $52.66 million. But last weekend’s hold is a troubling sign going forward, especially with the already mentioned upcoming direct competition on the horizon.

Twentieth Century Fox’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes rounded out the weekend’s top five with $8.69 million. The critically acclaimed 3D sci-fi action sequel was down 48 percent. Despite strong word of mouth, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has taken a hit from all of the new direct competition the past two weeks. In the bigger picture, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes continues to perform well with a 24-day take of $189.32 million. That leaves the film $10.68 million away from reaching the $200 million domestic milestone and places the film an impressive 27 percent ahead of the $148.67 million 24-day take of 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes.