Ron Seifried | On 29, Jul 2014

In what can be seen as a game-changer for female-led action flicks, Scarlett Johansson’s Lucy trounced Dwayne Johnson highly anticipated Hercules at the box office. Numbers don’t lie and Hollywood should take notice on what has become a depressing summer for big-action films.

Made by Universal on a $40 million budget, Lucy bought in over $36 million, while Hercules was a co-production between MGM and Paramount for $100 million made about $25 million, both on their opening weekends. Hercules opened in 400+ more theaters than Lucy and has a built-in fan-base and merchandising, but being the umpteenth version of a tired story, and second one this year, may have finally run its course on the old legend.

Both films were not embraced by the critics, hovering around 6 on Rotten Tomatoes, but a series of online articles by nebbish “scientists” refuting the Lucy plot-point of humans not accessing 100% of their brains may have generated a bit more buzz than the legendary Hercules.

Two immediate eye-openers from this audience trend. The first is that an original story took down a remake, a rare occurrence in the era of franchises. Spare me the detail that Hercules is based on a graphic novel, and is a different story that audiences are familiar with. By slapping on the Hercules brand, the producers are out to take advantage once again on retrofitting a story around an action star with minimal originality, Call this Lazy Filmmaking 101.

Despite its plot problems and mixed reviews, Lucy had Scarlett Johansson in a sci-fi, mind altering, original story about a woman with superhuman abilities. Dwayne Johnson’s Hercules was also superhuman, albeit not mind altering and most importantly, not original.

The other telling point is Lucy is rated R and Hercules rated PG-13. Despite losing a substantial percentage of teenage ticket buyers, Lucy still kicked ass.

Johnson has been furiously tweeting right up to opening weekend, dropping hints he will be the big screen version of DC Comics Shazam and hyping Hercules to his millions of followers. But Comic-Con came and went and there is still no official word if Johnson will be the next Shazam. The big buzz from DC Comics was the reveal of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, an old story with a new visual. Could Johnson’s shaky opening weekend change the course for Shazam, or are there actually any plans to make a film on the superhero? Maybe it was. John

Johansson meanwhile has not been desperately tweeting but resting on her laurels as co-star of 2014’s top-grossing film, Captain America: Winter Soldier. Is Johansson part of the new breed of female-action stars that is severely lacking on the big screen today?

What was once owned by Angelina Jolie, the former Lara Croft has refocused her efforts and career on humanitarian causes, more serious roles and directing. Today we have Johansson, Zoe Saldana (Avatar, Star Trek, Guardians of Galaxy) and the upcoming Wonder Woman Gadot as three successors to the female action star mantle that would make Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hamilton proud.

The naive will clamor for a Black Widow standalone film, and maybe Marvel will take notice and go into development. Hollywood studios call-to-action should not be stretch out a comic franchise too thinly and over-saturating the market. More female-driven original story’s like Luc Besson’s Lucy should be considered for production and explore the potential for new audiences.
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