This weekend at the US box office it was a battle between brains and brawn. **Lucy **(the brains), in which Scarlett Johansson stars as a young woman whose intelligence is exponentially boosted by an accidental drug exposure, faced off against Hercules (the brawn), featuring Dwayne Johnson and his famous musculature. In the end, it was brainy beauty that slew the bonce-thumping beast as the Luc Besson thriller bested the Brett Ratner fantasy adventure to take the top spot in the charts with $44 million dollars.
Marking Johansson’s most profitable lead opener (we’re not counting a certain Marvel film), Lucy has become something of a sleeper hit, one that was not expected to beat Johnson’s latest tough-guy role. But from the sound of it, the man they call “franchise Viagra” could use a little in his own box-office performance this time, as Hercules opened to a disappointing $29 million. To compare thusly: Lucy has already earned back its production budget in three days in the US alone, while Hercules will have to sweat and bludgeon overseas audiences to make good on its $100 million plus outlay.
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes conceded the top spots to the new arrivals, dropping to third with $16.4 million. It has now made more than $172 million in the US and has passed $353.9 million globally. Expect it to nudge past Rise in the domestic all-time charts within a week or so. The Purge: Anarchy fell from second to fourth, taking in $9.8 million, with Planes: Fire & Rescue sinking to fifth with $9.3 million.
**Sex Tape **continues to underperform, slipping two places from fourth to sixth and making $5.9 million this weekend, pushing its US total to $26.8 million, Transformers: Age Of Extinction was seventh with $4.6 million. In eighth, Rob Reiner’s latest, the Michael Douglas / Diane Keaton flick **And So It Goes **became yet another poor performer for the director, launching with $4.5 million despite opening on 1,762 screens. At ninth we find Tammy with $3.4 million and Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted man impressed in limited release (361 screens), opening at tenth with $2.7 million.
To see a young woman take down a hulking warrior in the full chart listings, head to Box Office Mojo.