Millennium Entertainment via Everett Collection
Two Hercules movies in the same year. Why? Stop it. Hollywood has done this before. It’s unnecessary. The Legend of Hercules has a January release date, yet later this year, Hercules, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will debut.
Guess which one of these films will do better?
The Legend of Hercules stars Kellan Lutz, the beefy hunk from the Twilight movies. Lutz’s fame is definitely on the rise, but on the rise simply won’t match up to the star power of The Rock. The former WWE superstar will put butts in theater seats. Who the hell thought this was a good idea? Two Hercules movies in the same year — come on, man. Although the Lutz production will power into theaters well before Johnson’s summer debut, it’s safe to predict which one will be more successful.
Even if The Legend of Hercules performs well, it will be deemed a failure compared to the July release of Hercules. A similar mess happened last year with two White House movies. Olympus Has Fallen soured audiences into watching another film about the White House under attack. White House Down did poorly at the box office despite coming out in the summer. It made only $250 million worldwide, a low figure for a popcorn flick starring money actors Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx.
Remember when two volcano movies erupted into the theaters in 1997? Dante’s Peak and Volcano didn’t have to happen at the same time, did it?
This tired practice needs to end. For the sake of movies, audiences and tubs of buttery popcorn, would movie studios start using common sense?
