July 4 Opening Is No Guarantee for Success at Box Office
July 04 2016 - 8:39PM
Dow Jones News
By Erich Schwartzel
The Fourth of July weekend has been the time for Hollywood to
launch some of its biggest hits. But there were few fireworks at
the holiday box office this weekend.
Two of the weekend's new wide releases, "The Legend of Tarzan"
and "The BFG," cost a combined $315 million to produce but arrived
to middling results, the latest examples of big-budget
disappointments in a summer struggling to keep up with last year's
record-breaking performance.
Instead, each movie was topped by the three-week-old "Finding
Dory," which collected an estimated $50.2 million over the four-day
weekend for a total domestic haul of $380.5 million. "Dory," a
Pixar Animation Studios movie released by Walt Disney Co., will
soon pass another Disney title, "Captain America: Civil War," as
the top-grossing movie of the year so far.
"The Legend of Tarzan," starring Alexander Skarsgård as the man
in the jungle, followed in second place with $45.6 million. The
release from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. performed better than
most in Hollywood were expecting, but its domestic opening is still
too low for a movie with a production budget of about $175
million.
Disney's "The BFG," director Steven Spielberg's take on the
classic Roald Dahl children's book, fared much worse. It grossed
$22.3 million in fourth place, a paltry showing for a movie that
cost about $140 million to produce.
"Tarzan" and "The BFG" are the kind of all-audience titles meant
to pack auditoriums over the long weekend, but it was an R-rated
horror movie that was the only new release to post solid
results.
"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.
"The Purge" cost about $10 million to make and was released by
Comcast Corp.'s Universal Pictures. "This is a success already,"
said Nick Carpou, Universal's president of domestic
distribution.
The holiday weekend can be a fickle one for Hollywood --
depending on when the Fourth of July falls, most moviegoers might
not have off work at a convenient time to hit the multiplex. But
the weekend has often been the blastoff for major summer
blockbusters such as the original "Transformers," "Armageddon" and
the Will Smith hits "Independence Day" and "Men in Black."
It has been more unpredictable lately. This weekend was
reminiscent of the Fourth of July box office last year, when new
releases "Terminator: Genisys" and "Magic Mike XXL" fizzled as
another three-week-old Pixar movie, "Inside Out," topped the
charts.
In 2013, "Despicable Me 2" kicked off a hugely profitable run
over the July 4 weekend, while "The Lone Ranger" became one of the
most high-profile flops in recent Hollywood history.
At the same time, studios have found recent success in
delivering movies at unconventional times of the year. The
blockbuster "Guardians of the Galaxy" hit theaters as the summer
was winding down in August 2014, and "Deadpool" remains one of the
years' top-grossing movies despite arriving in the doldrums of
mid-February.
"There has been less dependence on some of the historical
launching pads, " said Dave Hollis, Disney's executive vice
president of distribution.
Mr. Hollis said it was a "frustrating" weekend for "The BFG,"
which scored well with audiences but failed to see grosses
"matching up in the way you'd like."
Warner Bros. is looking to overseas audiences to help "The
Legend of Tarzan."
"This was a global play," said Jeff Goldstein, Warner's
executive vice president of distribution. The movie has opened in
19 international markets so far and collected $19.3 million, with
major countries like China still to come.
"Tarzan" and "The BFG" scored "A-" grades from opening-weekend
audiences, according to the CinemaScore market research firm, which
could help word-of-mouth business in coming weeks. "The Purge"
received a "B+."
Year-to-date box office is down 2.5%, according to comScore.
Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 04, 2016 20:24 ET (00:24 GMT)
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