{"id":35010,"date":"2014-07-28T10:36:41","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T10:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=35010"},"modified":"2014-07-28T10:36:41","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T10:36:41","slug":"scarlett-johansson-beats-dwayne-johnson-at-us-box-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=35010","title":{"rendered":"Scarlett Johansson beats Dwayne Johnson at US box office"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scarlett Johansson has come out on top in a box office tussle with former wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.<\/p>\n

Johansson’s Lucy, an action thriller about a woman who unlocks hitherto untapped brain powers, made $44m (\u00a326m) in the US and Canada over the weekend, according to studio estimates.<\/p>\n

Johnson’s fantasy Hercules had to settle for an estimated $29m (\u00a317m) between Friday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

The film’s distributor Paramount said the takings equalled expectations.<\/p>\n

“It’s exactly what we had hoped for,” said Megan Colligan, head of domestic marketing and distribution at Paramount Pictures.<\/p>\n

Directed by France’s Luc Besson, Lucy tells of a woman who can move objects with her mind after a drug causes her brain to operate at abnormally high levels.<\/p>\n

Hercules sees Johnson take on the role of the fabled Greek demigod, previously played on screen by Steve Reeves, Arnold Schwarzenegger and others.<\/p>\n

Brett Ratner’s film performed far more strongly than The Legend of Hercules, another outing for the character that could only muster $8.6m (\u00a35m) when it opened in US cinemas in January.<\/p>\n

\"Rachel<\/div>\n
A Most Wanted Man features one of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last screen performances<\/div>\n

Overall North American box office takings are still down around 20% compared to last year’s record summer.<\/p>\n

It is hoped Guardians of the Galaxy, the latest comic book fantasy from the Marvel stable, will reverse the trend when it opens in cinemas later this week.<\/p>\n

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, last week’s box office champ, fell two places to three with third weekend takings of $16.4m (\u00a39.6m).<\/p>\n

That was enough to rank it above thriller sequel The Purge: Anarchy and Disney’s Planes: Fire and Rescue, both of which were also down two places on last week’s placings.<\/p>\n

Two other new entries enjoyed more limited success than Lucy and Hercules, with both making their debuts outside of this week’s top five.<\/p>\n

And So It Goes, a romantic comedy starring Michael Douglas and Diane Keaton, opened at eight with first weekend takings of $4.6m (\u00a32.7m), while A Most Wanted Man made its bow at 10 with a $2.7m (\u00a31.6m) tally.<\/p>\n

Based on a novel by John Le Carre, the espionage thriller – released in the UK in September – stars the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as an anti-terrorist chief stationed in Hamburg.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

US and Canada box office<\/h2>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n

SOURCE: RENTRAK<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tfoot>\n
1.<\/strong>\u00a0Lucy – $44m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2.<\/strong>\u00a0Hercules – $29m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3.<\/strong>\u00a0Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – $16.4m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4.\u00a0<\/strong>The Purge: Anarchy – $9.9m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5.<\/strong>\u00a0Planes: Fire & Rescue – $9.3m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scarlett Johansson has come out on top in a box office tussle with former wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Johansson’s Lucy, an action thriller about a woman who unlocks hitherto untapped brain powers, made $44m (\u00a326m) in the US and Canada over the weekend, according to studio estimates. Johnson’s fantasy Hercules had to settle for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":35011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[34,6],"class_list":["post-35010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ghana-standards-authority","tag-togbe-afede"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}