Over There

By Edwin Davies

September 8, 2014

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Just as Guardians of the Galaxy has ascended back to the top of the charts in the US based on its own appealing goofiness and a lack of real competition, Lucy, like an even sexier Grover Cleveland, managed to take the number one slot for a second non-consecutive weekend. Buoyed by a solid debut in South Korea, the Luc Besson action film took in $25.5 million and is sitting pretty on a total to date of $192.2 million, and it passed the $300 million mark globally. It has yet to hit China and Japan, so don't expect Scarlett Johansson to disappear until her film has taken at least 10% of the world's money.

Two films hoping to save face internationally sit at numbers two and three this weekend. Both Hercules and The Expendables 3 expanded and took in $17.1 million and $17 million, respectively. The gap between the two has shrunk considerably over the last few weeks, as Hercules has $122.9 million from overseas audiences and The Expendables 3 has $88 million, but the latter's higher budget and complete implosion stateside mean that even if Stallone and co. pull ahead, they're unlikely to be able to spin this result as anything other than damage control at this point, while Hercules' under-performance is pretty tame in comparison.

Following its impressive debut in China last week, things calm down for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes this weekend, but it still managed to pull in $16.6 million and has $437.6 million to date. It still has yet to expand into Japan, which should give it the boost it needs to cross the $500 million mark internationally.




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Only $100,000 separates the films at five and six this weekend, but the stories of those two films couldn't be more different. Into The Storm wins out this time as it earned $11.6 million compared to Guardians of the Galaxy's $11.5 million, but the air seems to be going out of the tornado flick, which hasn't caught on with foreign audiences (though considering the more modest cost of Into The Storm, it is in better financial shape than, say, The Expendables 3), while America's favorite A-holes are catching their breath ahead of their expansion into Japan and China. Guardians has $291.6 million so far (sixth best all-time for a Marvel Studios film, almost equidistant between Iron Man's $266.8 million and Iron Man 2's $311.5 million), while Into The Storm has $65.7 million and should be glad to have even that much.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continued to amble along nicely as much of the rest of the world braces for its brand of assaultive nostalgia. It earned $8.7 million and has a running total of $125.6 million. It also crossed the $300 million mark globally, which is the latest surprisingly impressive feat for a surprisingly impressive release. It's quickly followed by Tazza 2, a South Korean gambling movie that topped the charts in that country (handling beating Lucy in its first weekend) with $8.1 million, and But Always, a Chinese romance which earned $7.1 million and whose sentence fragment of a title would have infuriated poor Linguo.

Finally this weekend we have Deliver Us From Evil. Remember that film? It was a horror-cop movie hybrid? It starred Eric Bana and Joel McHale for some reason? I swear that it's a real film and it actually was released in the US a few months back. Anyway, it's slowly been rolling out and this weekend it earned $6.9 million. It has an international take so far of $34.3 million, surpassing the $30.5 million that it (allegedly) earned in the US. That's not bad for a $30 million production, but it doesn't exactly rank as a high point for anyone involved.


     


 
 

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