Production budget: $40,000,000 Worldwide gross: $458,863,600 Profit: 1,147% Few actors can claim to have had anything like as good a year as Scarlett Johansson. As 2014 began, Johansson still had Spike Jonzes remarkable Her opening in cinemas across the world, and her Black Widow Marvel character would make a welcome return a few months later in the excellent Captain America sequel. In between, Jonathan Glazers strange, haunting experiment Under The Skin wowed critics, and the actress also made an appearance in Jon Favreaus pleasant effort Chef. An impressive and diverse body of work by anyones standards, but Johansson also found time to provide further evidence that female-led blockbusters have more audience pull than ever before. Luc Bessons sci-fi action flick Lucy arrived without any significant fanfare and surprised everyone by lighting up the summer box office to the tune of almost $459 million worldwide. Lucy has been derided as silly in some circles and been called a good deal worse in others, but few could quarrel that an original property featuring a female lead punching above its weight to such an extent is a good thing for the movie business. An especially good thing for Universal Pictures, too, as a judicious $40 million budget resulted in Lucy becoming one of 2014s best investments.
I watch movies and I watch sport. I also watch movies about sport, and if there were a sport about movies I'd watch that too. The internet was the closest thing I could find.
