“Tarzan” came the closest to dethroning “Dory” with $38.1 million.
Advertisement
The timely “Independence Day: Resurgence”, dropped to fifth place for its second week in theaters, cashing in $16.5 million.
“Tarzan” cost $180 million to make and tens of millions more to market. Domestically, the films have notched up a respective $153 million and $79 million. It could end up making $4 million for the four-day holiday weekend, which would be around $10 million more than analysts predicted, Variety said.
The BFG, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the Roald Dahl children’s book, came in fourth, taking in a paltry $22.3 million in its opening weekend. Disney retains hope for the film’s word of mouth, in light of its A-minus CinemaScore. It is projected to earn $50.5 million in the four-day Fourth of July weekend, AceShowbiz reports. “The BFG” is struggling to gain an audience, which is a shame as it feels like it channels an earlier era’s level of pure fun from Spielberg.
The Pixar animated movie was swimming in $41.9 million in domestic receipts this weekend, flowing into a sea of $372.2 million is Disney dollars over three weeks.
Burbank, California-based Disney also released Spielberg’s “The BFG”, which is based on the book by Roald Dahl and features Oscar victor Mark Rylance as the benevolent giant who befriends a young girl.
“The Purge: Election Year”, the third installment in the horror-film franchise, collected $34.8 million in third place and became one of the few sequels this summer to outperform its predecessor.
For more blood and violence, you can choose the latest shark attack tale in “The Shallows” or revisit another 12 hours of national lawlessness in “The Purge: Election Year”.
“Election Year” also exceeded expectations, earning $30.9 million in its three-day opening (it was pegged for just $20 million). With a production budget of $140 million and a spendy marketing campaign, this film will go down as a failure and a write-down for Disney. The movie has opened in 19 global markets so far and collected $19.3 million, with major countries like China still to come.
Next week Finding Dory faces another challenger in The Secret Life of Pets while the only other newcomer, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, should have the R-rated comedy crowd all to itself.
Advertisement
The rest of the box office top 10 included Warner Bros.’ “Central Intelligence” at No. 6.
