The Legend of Tarzan stars Alexander Skarsgard and Margot Robbie. (Getty)
Independence Day might have overall been slow at movie theaters, but the new releases still did pretty well. The Legend of Tarzan, the latest retelling of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ influential King of the Jungle stories from Warner Bros., made surprisingly strong business for what was anticipated to be a major disaster. The Purge: Election Year and The BFG also provided Disney and Pixar’s Finding Dory with competition, but the fish tale still came out on top with $50.2 million over the long July 4 weekend.
‘The Legend of Tarzan’ Takes Second With $45.5 Million
The Legend of Tarzan cast. (Getty)
The Legend of Tarzan was slated to be the latest disaster from Hollywood based on decades-old properties that aren’t supposed to click with today’s audiences. The Lone Ranger and Pan all faltered, but Tarzan didn’t do so bad. According to studio estimates for ComScore, the film earned $38.1 million and will surely add more on the July 4th holiday.
Unfortunately for Warner Bros., the David Yates-directed, Alexander Skarsgard-starring movie cost $180 million to make. Box Office Mojo reports that it has made $56.9 million overseas, so that will help. Also, audiences did give it an A- CinemaScore, so this one might have legs.
‘The Purge: Election Year’ Has Franchise-Best Opening
Frank Grillo stars in The Purge: Election Year. (Getty)
The Purge: Election Year had the best opening in the franchise’s history, eking past The Purge: Anarchy‘s $29.8 million opening in July 2014. That film went on to gross $71.9 million in North America. Election Year, like Anarchy, had a minuscule budget, costing just $10 million to make.
While Election Year did well, the same could not be said for Steven Spielberg’s The BFG. The Roald Dhal adaptation mustered just $22.3 million in its opening weekend. The film cost $140 million to make and was a co-production between Disney and Spielbrg’s Amblin.
One other noteworthy development from this weekend was the huge dive taken by Independence Day: Resurgence. The film fell to just $20.2 million in its second weekend and has made just $72.3 million so far.
The Full Top 10 (Estimates)
| 1 | Finding Dory (Disney) | $50.1 million |
| 2 | The Legend of Tarzan (Warner Bros.) | $45.5 million |
| 3 | The Purge: Election Year (Universal) | $34.8 million |
| 4 | The BFG (Disney) | $22.3 million |
| 5 | Independence Day: Resurgence (20th Century Fox) | $20.2 million |
| 6 | Central Intelligence (Warner Bros.) | $15.1 million |
| 7 | The Shallows (Sony) | $10.4 million |
| 8 | Free State of Jones (STX) | $5.1 million |
| 9 | The Conjuring 2 (Warner Bros.) | $4.6 million |
| 10 | Now You See Me 2 (Lionsgate) | $3.6 million |
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Box Office: ‘Legend of Tarzan’ Gives ‘Finding Dory’ Strong Competition