Catapulting straight past this weekend’s anticipated new releases, Pixar’s sequel Finding Dory continues to dominate the U.S. box office for the third week on the trot, dwarfing The Legend of Tarzan and decimating Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Roald Dahl classic The BFG, over the 4th of July weekend.
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The Conjuring 2 brought in $3.9 million for the #9 spot in its fourth weekend, bringing its totals to $95.3 million domestically and $274.1 million worldwide. Proving that sometimes the experts don’t know what they’re talking about, Warner Bros.’ The Legend of Tarzan had a pretty successful opening weekend. The film launched overseas in Russian Federation and Australia where it managed $3.9 million for a $23.5 million worldwide start through Sunday. The film stars Elizabeth Mitchell as a USA senator who wants to eliminate the annual “purge night”, when all crime becomes legal for 12 hours. The film makes back its budget which is estimated at $10 million. Dory also crossed another milestone: becoming the second highest-grossing film of the year so far (just behind Captain America: Civil War, which muscled to $405.4 million earlier this summer).
The 180-million-dollar budget film received an “A-” from first-night moviegoers on CinemaScore. “It’s a success story all the way around, even here as we are in the middle of it”.
With the Roald Dahl label, Spielberg as director and Oscar-winner Rylance starring, Disney didn’t make such an effort to market the film.
Experts predicted as low as $19 million for the movie’s opening weekend. Considering this cost $140 million, it’s starting to smell another box office flop for Disney (after Alice Through the Looking Glass). Any hopes for box office magic resulting from the long holiday weekend were dashed, however, as Pixar’s Finding Dory, the sequel to the beloved 2003 film Finding Nemo, won its third weekend in a row.
Elsewhere, Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets pulls in an estimated $15.2 million from select global territories ahead of its July 8 domestic bow.
Independence Day: Resurgence rounds out the top 5 with $16.7 million, down a top 10 worse 59.3%.
Things looked bleak for Independence Day: Resurgence last weekend with a slow domestic opening, but foreign audiences have demonstrated a stronger interest this week, adding $177 million to the now $249 million world-wide total.
New Line-Universal’s third weekend of Dwayne Johnson-Kevin Hart buddy comedy “Central Intelligence” followed in sixth with $15 million, lifting the 18-day total to $94.4 million.
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Now You See Me 2 closed out the top ten with $3 million in its fourth weekend.
