Finding Dory Swims Circles Around Tarzan And The Purge: Election Year

The action epic starring Alexander Skarsgard, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson, and Christoph Waltz was predicted to open around $30 million.

Steven Spielberg’s much-hyped adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s classic, The BFG, has so far failed to impress family audiences in the United States, bringing in a modest $US19.6m ($26.22 million) over the three-day July 4 weekend.

Finding Dory came in at No.1 with $US41.9 million ($A56.26 million), according to studio estimates on Sunday.

The Legend Of Tarzan and The BFG were no match for Finding Dory at US cinemas over the July 4th weekend. The $180 million jungle adventure swung to a $45.6 million total over its first four days, as it played pretty evenly across gender demographics and brought out an older audience (55% were over the age of 35).

Universal, Blumhouse, and Platinum Dunes’ horror continuation The Purge: Election Year adds around $3 million to its $31.4 three-day finish, coming in at No. 3 with an estimated $34.8 million.

It might be a bedtime classic in the United Kingdom, but Steven Spielberg’s new, big-budget take on Roald Dahl’s “The BFG” has flopped in the States. And “The BFG” opened in fourth place, with a $19.6 million gross.

“Dory”, voiced by Ellen DeGeneres, follows a forgetful fish on a quest to find her parents, much as she did as a supporting character in the 2003 animated hit “Finding Nemo”.

Critics have been left wondering if maybe Steven Spielberg has lost his touch, after his new film The BFG has flopped at the box office.

While it has felt like a quiet holiday weekend for new movies, particularly as there are no big superhero blockbusters in the mix, the weekend did pretty well overall as the box office is up 41% over previous year.

Finding Dory has received mostly positive reviews in the US. On a budget of $140 million, it seems unlikely that The BFG will be anything but a financial bust for Disney.

He credits an off-kilter marketing campaign, that featured an image of a sticker saying “I Purged” next to a waving American flag, that calls to mind similar “I Voted” stickers, driving interest in the film and dovetailing nicely with the presidential campaign.

Here is the top 5 global box office for this week.

The timely “Independence Day: Resurgence”, dropped to fifth place for its second week in theaters, cashing in $16.7 million.

The Purge: Election Year is in between these two struggling big budget films, but is in much better shape thanks to its cheap cost.