
The weekend box office pitted Scarlett Johansson against Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson; a female action hero versus a mythological Greek warrior; Luc Besson of The Fifth Element versus Brett Ratner of … Rush Hour. Ultimately, it wasn’t even close: Johansson’s Lucy, a movie about a woman dosed with a drug that allows her to access her entire brain, easily outperformed the Rock’s Hercules, raking in $44 million — well above its $40 million price tag. Hercules brought in $29 million, and will have to recoup the $100 million it cost to make overseas. Meanwhile, two-time box-office winner Dawn of the Planet of the Apes came in third with $16.3 million for a cumulative gross of $172 million domestically. The Purge: Anarchy came in fourth with $9.9 million, and Planes: Fire and Rescue held on to the fifth spot with $9.3 million. But, overall, the box office is still down 13 percent from the same weekend last year. At least we’ll have softer expectations for next year?