Box office report: 'Lone Survivor' sizzles with $38.5 million

Box office report: 'Lone Survivor' sizzles with $38.5 million and a rare A+ CinemaScore

"The film, based on the true story of former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, grossed $38.5 million over the Friday-to-Sunday period, marking the second best January debut of all time after Cloverfield‘s $40.1 million bow in 2008.

New release The Legend of Hercules played like a Greek tragedy on opening weekend, earning only $8.6 million from 2,104 theaters, a gross the gods of Mount Olympus wouldn’t give a second glance. The Renny Harlin-directed action film, which stars Kellan Lutz as the titular hero, cost Millennium Films about $70 million to produce (Summit handled distribution), but it fell way short of Lutz’s last swords-and-sandals picture, Immortals, which opened with $32.2 million in 2011.

Three Oscar contenders expanded nationally this weekend to mixed results. August: Osage County fared best, grossing $7.3 million from 905 theaters. Weinstein’s Julia Roberts/Meryl Streep family drama has now earned $7.8 million total. Warner Bros.’ critically lauded Spike Jonze entry Her played in almost twice as many theaters (1,729 locations) as August, but it finished with a much weaker $5.4 million and an $8.8 million total. Still, that result was better than CBS Films’ Inside Llewyn Davis, which moved into 729 theaters but only strummed up $1.8 million for a $9.3 million total. All three films will need major awards attention to hold up over the next month."