This weekend at the US box office, it was quite literally a battle between brains and brawn as Lucy – in which Scarlett Johansson stars as a young woman whose intelligence is exponentially boosted by an accidental drug exposure – faced off against Hercules, featuring Dwayne Johnson and his famous musculature. In the end, it was brainy beauty that slew the bonce-thumping beast as the Luc Besson thriller bested the Brett Ratner fantasy adventure to take the top spot in the charts with $44 million dollars.

Marking Johansson’s most profitable lead opener (we’re not counting a certain Marvel film), Lucy has become something of a sleeper hit, one that was not expect to beat Johnson’s latest tough guy role. But from the sound of it, the man they call “Franchise Viagra” could use a little in his own box office performance this time, as Hercules opened to a disappointing $29 million. To compare thusly: Lucy has already earned back its production budget in three days in the US alone, while Hercules will have to sweat and bludgeon overseas audiences to make good on its $100 million plus outlay.

Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes conceded the top two spots to the new arrivals, dropping to third with $16.4 million. It has now made more than $172 million in the US and has passed $353.9 million globally. Expect it to nudge past Rise in the domestic all-time charts within a week or so. The Purge: Anarchy fell from second to fourth, taking in $9.8 million, with Planes: Fire & Rescue sinking to fifth with $9.3 million.

Sex Tape continues to underperform, slipping two places from fourth to sixth and making $5.9 million this weekend, pushing its US total to $26.8 million, Transformers: Age Of Extinction was seventh with $4.6 million. In eighth, Rob Reiner’s latest, the Michael Douglas/Diane Keaton comedy romantic drama And So It Goes became yet another poor performer for the director, launching with $4.5 million despite opening on 1,762 screens. At ninth we find Tammy with $3.4 million and Anton Corbijin’s A Most Wanted man impressed in limited release (361 screens), opening at 10th with $2.7 million.