The Long Box Office Weekend: Finding Tarzan
Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at 12:25AM How was your holiday weekend? I took a rare break from blogging for a long 4th of July weekend with two friends I hadn't seen in far too long. We didn't hit the movies but for a couple of post meal watches on shared couches (The Intern & 10 Cloverfield Lane). But movies are always big business on this weekend, even without our help. It was a tough opening weekend for The BFG but both the new Tarzan and The Purge did well, Despite three major new films and a big expansion for a others like Swiss Army Man, cinemas were still under the sea. Finding Dory remains at #1 and will soon be the top grossing film of the whole year. Haven't all the fish been found by now?
TOP FIVE WIDE
1000+ screens. arrows indicate gaining or losing screens
▫️01 Finding Dory $50.1 (cum. $380.5) Review
🔺02 The Legend of Tarzan $45.5 NEW Review
🔺03 The Purge: Election Year $34.7 NEW
🔺04 The BFG $22.2 NEW
🔺05 Independence Day: Resurgence $20.2 (cum. $76.3) Roland Emmerich
TOP FIVE LIMITED
Less than 1000 screens. Excluding previously wide.
🔺01 Swiss Army Man $1.7 (cum. $1.8) 636 screens
🔺02 Our Kind of Traitor $1.2 NEW 372 screens
🔻03 Love & Friendship $512K (cum. $12.6) 185 screens Review, Podcast
🔻04 The Lobster $425K (cum. $7.6) 151 screens Reviewish, Podcast
🔺05 Maggie's Plan $400K (cum. $2.7) Review
What did you see/do this weekend?
Reader Comments (23)
Watched recent Australian films ADORATION (aka ADORE aka TWO MOTHERS), omnibus film THE TURNING and HEALING.
And the latest series of VEEP which really captures the f#cked up state of politics and politicians in countries like the US, UK and Australia. I laughed but could just as easily have cried.
I was boring and saw Finding Dory. Bailey the Beluga Whale was my favourite.
Nathaniel, I have Actressexual questions for you! Deadline reported last week that a film about Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West is going into production in England. Who would you like to see cast as Virginia and Vita? Would you like to see Nicole play Virginia again?
I'm glad Tarzan movie did well. I have very little interest in seeing it (but will for leads) and it wasn't necessary at all but I want Alex and Margot to have long, good careers and their blockbusters not tanking during this awful summer may help them both
It was something new in the marketplace helped by a good cast and good reviews,,after all those bloated seqals this year here was a fresher option for families with older teen children rather than going to see Dory .
The BFG is wonderful! Sad to see it flopping so badly with audiences, and even more depressingly, with critics. So far, it's one of my three or four favorite films of the year. And Ruby Barnhill is quite a find and certainly one of the best acresses of the year whatever the age.
Neon Demon is, on the other had, a total piece of garbage. So bad it makes me wonder if I should go back and re-evaluate the Pusher trilogy and Drive. What vacuous filth!
Swiss Army Man is pretty great until the last 10 minutes when it completely falls apart. Wasn't there anyone around to point this out to the Daniels (either or both) and give it a re-think?
At home I saw The English Patient to finally fill that gap in my 1996 viewing experience after some friends had been talking about it. Very pretty but I just could NOT get into the main romance. Fiennes has probably never looked prettier but he was SO intense it became creepy. He looked like he was going to rip her apart when they finally have sex. I mean, even KST calls his behavior "predatory" at some point and yet we're still supposed to root for them? And I have to say that although I always like KST and she was fine in this, I'm not sure I see an Oscar nom-worthy performance. She was kinda bland.
At the theaters I saw Tickled. Holy crap. What a disturbing portrait of class, money, power and greed. Sure, there's something inherently silly about it but when it ends I couldn't help but feel depressed. And I'm still wondering about Nick Davis' hypothesis that it's all a hoax.
DJDeeJay: I have her at 6th (7th if I bought into the McDormand is co-lead in Fargo, which I don't quite buy, but I absolutely understand she's on the edge and can go either way), with Diane Keaton in Marvin's Room the only one of the 1996 Lead Actress nominees not seen.
My ballot:
Brenda Blethyn, Secrets and Lies - Winner
Claire Danes, Romeo + Juliet - Bronze
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Secrets and Lies
Emily Watson, Breaking the Waves - Silver
Renee Zellweger, Jerry Maguire
Nathaniel, remembering how much you and others here liked it, I saw The Fits! Definitely agree that it's a solid debut film, and I look forward to seeing what Anna Rose Holmer does next. I also realized that, including this one, the last five films I saw in theaters were all directed or co-directed by women, so that's exciting.
Brenda Blethyn, Secrets and Lies - Winner
THIS
I saw The Legend of Tarzan, which is underrated. It's very flawed, but I'd like to see a sequel.
I saw Our Kind of Traitor which I've already forgotten everything about.
And I saw Swiss Army Man. I was surprised by how touching it was and really loved the middle, but it completely fell apart at the end.
Nothing interested me in cinema (see top 5 above) but I did watch a few episodes of Narcos, and really enjoy it. The use of both Spanish and English speaking actors is very effective. Wagner Moura as Pablo Escobar is outstanding.
Brenda Blethyn in Secrets and Lies .... yaaaaaas. She should have won the Oscar that year (no offense to McDormand ... but she could do that in her sleep).
This weekend, I saw The Fits. I absolutely loved it despite walking out of the theater thinking "What just happened? What did I just see?" The visuals are just spectacular.
Captain Fantastic: loved it. Loved Viggo in it. Incredibly well cast film, including George MacKay (Pride), Steve Zahn, Kathryn Hahn, Frank Langella, Ann Dowd. My first favorite film of 2016, can't wait to watch it again. #fullfrontalmortensen
Mentioned coincidentally by both Pyle and Dowd in their guest blogs here.
Thoughts on 10 Cloverfield Lane? I know you hadn't seen it before.
Rewatches:
Looking For Mr. Goodbar: Still disturbing, with Diane Keaton at the peak of her powers.
The 40 Year Old Virgin: Still hilarious, one of Apatow's best. He needs to remember this during his next project.
First watches:
The Big Short: Wildly entertaining but not as clever as it thinks it is. Why was this nominated for Best Picture?
Zoolander No. 2: Fashion is dead. Kristen Wiig has some good moments.
The Wedding Singer: Sandler isn't annoying and Drew is quite fetching. Killer soundtrack.
@ brookesboy
I'll always shake my head about how the Academy awarded Keaton a Best Actress Oscar for Annie Hall the same year her work in Looking For Mr. Goodbar was eligible.
@Volvagia - that's a really good lineup. 1996 was such a strong year for lead actresses. While I understand the hesitation to put McDormand in lead, I figure it's like Hopkins in Silence for the Lambs (12-16 min, depending on who you believe) or Kidman/The Hours (28 minutes): such a strong, driving presence in the film and story that they seem like a lead even if technically they aren't.
Re: 1996 Best Actress. Don't forget Debbie Reynolds in Mother
Saw Absolutely Fabulous The Movie. Did not have the highest expectations, but the film met them. Joanna Lumley still brilliant as Patsy.
Saw the new Purge film. It's easily the best one yet. I mean, I know that's not saying much if you've only seen the first one (which was, at best, an interesting concept with messy execution).
It's rare for a horror sequel to improve on the source material and be able to stand alone as its own film. The references to the previous entries are not essential to understanding the story. It's funny, it's scary, it's well-structured (so nice to see a modern slasher with a three act structure again), and the acting is good for this kind of film. It's broad and meant to induce laughter, disgust, anger, and eventually triumph.
The two teenage villains in the b-plot almost make Bette Davis' later horror work look subtle and it's brilliant. They're a moment of bizarre levity in a much more somber entry.
Bonus points for the awesome new high tech masks and costuming. The Purge films always deliver on the killers' appearances.
" The Jungle Book" is really well done and those animals are Oscar worthy... and re-watched "Goldfinger" still one of the best James Bond movies
I watched Wendy & Lucy again. Second time--haven't seen it for years. I think it's incredible and that Williams should have been nominated that year.
My partner liked it but was like "What's with all of these depressing movies you make me watch?" lol
My holiday weekend was awful, because I had to spend it with writing an outline for an essay for college. I didn't have time for rest or celebration, just for studying.