Actress Scarlett Johansson arrives at the UK premiere of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” in London in a March 20, 2014 file photo. Gun-toting thugs and a merciless Asian mob boss are no match for the brawn and brain of French director Luc Besson’s super-powered heroine in his sci-fi, action thriller “Lucy.” Scarlett Johansson (“The Avengers”) is Lucy, a woman tricked by a boyfriend into delivering a suitcase who becomes one of several unwilling drug mules dispatched around the globe by Asian mobsters. REUTERS/Paul Hackett/files
PARIS (Reuters) – French film director Luc Besson was over $5 million richer on Monday after his film “Lucy” starring Scarlett Johansson as a woman with a super-powered brain topped the North American box office at the weekend.
Shares in film making company Europacorp, in which he holds a 44 percent stake or some 12.94 millionshares, climbed 7.5 percent to 4.15 euros each, valuing his holding at 53.7 million euros, up by 3.75million ($5.04 million) from Friday’s stock market close.
“Lucy” collected $45 million at the weekend, Europacorp said in a statement, outmuscling “Hercules”, which took in $29 million for second place.
Johansson plays a woman who can stop traffic and move objects with her mind after a drug planted in her body causes her brain to operate at abnormally high levels.
The special effects-laden movie was released by Universal Pictures, a unit of Comcast Corp, and made for a relatively inexpensive $40 million, according to the movie site Box Office Mojo.
Gilbert Dupont analyst Jean-Baptiste Sargeant said even though royalties would not come through for two or three years, “Lucy’s” strong showing would have an instant image-related impact for Europacorp.
“It’s simpler to attract big cinema names when you can leverage a success,” he said. (1 US dollar = 0.7442 euro)
(Reporting by Andrew Callus and Alexandre Boksenbaum-Granier; Editing by James Regan)
‘Lucy’ box office bonanza lifts Besson fortune by $5 mln
Source: Mb.com.ph (July 30, 2014 at 10:16AM)
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