Box Office: Weekend Down 13%; Summer Down 20%

Despite both “Lucy” and “Hercules” opening better than expected ($44 million and $29 million, respectively), Nikki Finke notes that it wasn’t enough for the weekend to even tread water. Compared to this same weekend last year, the box office was down 13%.

This year is not just a flop compared to last, which was a record year. Summer 2014 is on pace to be the worst in 8 years,  and with “Guardians of the Galaxy” as its last real hope, this summer could go down as the first since 2001 with no film reaching $300 million.

Year to date, 2014 is the worst of the last 6 years.

Follow  John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC