Box office

SUPERHEROES RESCUE SUMMER BOX OFFICE: The drought is over, thanks to Marvel/Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which blew away the previous record for an August opening weekend with a whopping $94m (it's also propelling the film's soundtrack into Top 5 territory, about which see above, and has pushed Disney stock up 1.61 as of this writing). And take a look at that per-screen average—nice. The previous record holder, 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum, opened to $69.3m, according to Box Office Mojo. That dwarfed the weekend’s other high-profile debut, Universal’s Mick Jagger-produced James Brown biopic Get On Up, which finished behind the Scarlett Johansson-starring sci-fi movie Lucy—meaning superheroes snagged the top two slots.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy (Marvel/Disney) – $94m, 4,080/$23,039 avg. (debut)
2. Lucy (Uni.) – $18.3m (-58%), 3,202/$5,710 avg. (week 2)
3. Get On Up (Uni.) – $14m, 2,468/$5,685 avg. (debut)
4. Hercules (2014) (Paramount) – $10.7m (-64%) 3,595/$2,976 avg. (week 2)
5. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Fox) – $8.7m (-48%), 3,283/$2,650 avg. (week 4)

Richard Linklater’s extraordinary Boyhood (IFC) was the top earner in limited release, grossing $2.5m (+43.1%) while more than doubling its theater count to 311, and averaging $8,109. (8/4a)