Box Office Report: Hercules rocks the Australian chart

Dwayne Johnson’s big-budget re-imagining of the Hercules legend managed to take the top spot at the Australian box office over the past weekend, taking $3.51 million. This one really could have gone either way. Johnson is as popular as ever and is now considered a bankable leading man. Director Brett Ratner is commonly known as one of the most unpopular directors in Hollywood, mainly due to his disappointing direction of X-Men: The Last Stand back in 2006. Despite this, Ratner is not a bad director; his Rush Hour films were good fun, and reactions to Hercules have been positive so far. The film opened to a decent but slightly underwhelming US$29.8 million in the US, but Johnson is unlikely to be hurt by that. Audiences love him and he’s sticking around for the foreseeable future.

The champion of the last two weeks, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, fell to the second spot with $1.81 million. Audiences are loving the film, which has deservedly received some of the best reviews of the year. Coming in at third is Mrs. Brown’s Boys D’Movie with $1.79 million, proving that there is definitely a massive audience out there who love the show. Reviews have not been kind to the film, but fans don’t care about that. The abysmal comedy Sex Tape fell to fourth spot, followed by new horror film Deliver Us From Evil, which fell just shy of $1 million.

There is a great range of new films to choose from this week. Lucy sees Scarlett Johansson as an average woman who’s entire brain capacity is unlocked, transforming her into a merciless warrior. Early word has been positive and Johansson always gives a solid performance, so Lucy will likely take the top spot next week. Also being released is espionage thriller A Most Wanted Man, based on the novel by John le Carre and featuring the final lead performance by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film also stars Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright and Willem Dafoe. Aussie thriller These Final Hours also opens this week, starring Nathan Phillips as a man who has to decide how to spend the last day of his life while the world crumbles around him. You can read our review of These Final Hours here. Eager fans will also get the chance to see advanced screenings of Marvel’s space opera Guardians of the Galaxy, which isn’t released officially until August 7th. Early reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, with many claiming that the film is the most exciting and fun Marvel movie yet!

All figures from The Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia and Box Office Mojo.

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