It was a solid Independence Day weekend for everyone not named Steven Spielberg as three films posted numbers above the $30 million mark. Disney/PIXAR’s Finding Dory was number one for the third weekend in a row with $41 million for an awesome grand total of $372 million. At this rate it ought to pass Captain America: Civil War’s $405 million total sometime next week and become the highest grossing film of 2016. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to also predict that it ultimately pass the total gross of The Dark Knight Rises and find itself in the Top 10 Highest Grossing Films of All Time Club. Can it go higher?
Surprising just about everyone by not being a flop is the number 2 film The Legened of Tarzan which took in an actually quite decent $38.1 million. This thing has a hefty $180 million budget to it, so the jury is still out on whether it’s a hit but that start is certainly quite encouraging if you work for Warner Bros. We’ll see how this one plays out.
There’s no ambiguity about the numbers put up by our #3 film The Purge: Election Year though. Tight-was horror producer Jason Blum has another hit on his hands. This third installment in series opened with an excellent $30.8 million which is above Purge Anarchy‘s $29.8 million and below the original’s $34 million. This thing was made for a mere $10 million, so it’s already a huge success. Say what you will about Jason Blum, but the guy knows how to make money.
Steven Spielberg’s children’s film The BFG got off to a terrible start in fourth. The $19.5 million opening is pitiful when you consider the $140 million budget it took to make this. Obviously a lot went wrong here. The marketing campaign was certainly not very good and Roald Dahl books aren’t exactly cool with the kids these days. I think the biggest reason for this film’s failure is its release date though. Finding Dory is obviously still bringing the kids in and it was foolish to aim for the same target audience this soon after its release. This confuses me because Disney is the distributor of both of these movies. Why cannibalize your own films when you can just release one in February or some other less competitive month?
Well, that does it for me! So, how high can Dory go? Will she crack the Top 5? Does The BFG deserve another chance? Comment away!
Source: Boxofficemojo.com