The Long Box Office Weekend: Finding Tarzan

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?

Scarlett Johannson is the grossest actress ever

...as in, the cumilative box office grossings of the films she's starred in!

Josh here to quickly talk earnings. Scarlett's cumulative box office grossings earn her the title of highest grossing actress ever in the USA according to Box Office Mojo. This title is a little misleading as it's not exactly just Scarlett drawing people to all those Marvel movies that she isn't even the lead of (shame!). Along with the Marvel cinematic universe, her massive tally includes her 5 seconds of voice work in The Jungle Book and actual star vehicle Lucy. This puts her ahead of Cameron Diaz, Helena Bonham Carter, Cate Blanchett and Julia Roberts (who is the only lady on the list not propped up massively by a mega-franchise).

The top ten and more facts about the cashed up list after the jump

Click to read more ...

Water Sports with Dory, Blake, and Dead Daniel

Moviegoers were content to keep swimming with Dory this weekend as the new releases didn't stir audiences. Well that's not wholly true. Moviegoers turned out for other water sports like water skiing on Daniel Radcliffe's corpse in Swiss Army Man (crowded houses but only available in NY & LA) and shark dodging with Blake Lively in The Shallows which had a solid per screen average, a low budget, and surprisingly good reviews. That triple combo could signify big profits for The Shallows ahead if the film finds legs in July, especially if it doesn't lose momentum over the 4th of July holiday week frenzy when The BFG, Tarzan, and The Purge 3 are all newly available to moviegoers. 

The two films that had the toughest time this weekend were the 20 years later (aka way too late) sequel Independence Day Resurgence and the horror/fashion/noir/thriller/satire/whatsit/drama Neon Demon, which risked a nearly wide opening (just under 800 theaters) but couldn't fill theaters -- Elle Fanning isn't bankable yet. Whatever happened to Dakota? *sniffle*

TOP TEN WIDE
1000+ screens. arrows indicate gaining or losing screens
▫️01 Finding Dory $73.2 (cum. $286.5) Review
🔺02 Independence Day: Resurgence $41.6 NEW 
▫️03 Central Intelligence $18.3 (cum. $69.3)
🔺04 The Shallows $16.7 NEW
🔺05 Free State of Jones $7.7 NEW 
🔻06 The Conjuring 2 $7.7 (cum. $86.9) 
🔻07 Now You See Me 2 $5.6 (cum. $52)
🔻08 X-Men Apocalypse $2.4 (cum. $151.1) Review, Podcast
🔻09 TMNT: Out of the Shadows $2.4 (cum. $77.1)
🔻10 Warcraft $2.1 (cum. $43.8) Six Questions

Fan Art by The Glitchway. Click here for more

TOP TEN LIMITED
Less than 1000 screens. Excluding previously wide. 
🔺01 The Neon Demon $606K NEW
🔻02 Love & Friendship $490K (cum. $11.8) Review, Podcast  
🔻03 The Lobster $436K (cum. $7) Reviewish, Podcast 
🔻04 Maggie's Plan $297K (cum. $2.2)  Review
🔺05 Genius $216K (cum. $807K) 
🔺06 Weiner $115K (cum. $1.2)  Review
🔺07 Swiss Army Man $114K NEW Review 
🔺08 Dark Horse $92K (cum. $493K) Review
🔻09 The Man Who Knew Infinity $88K (cum. $3.5)
🔻10 The Hunt for Wilderpeople $85K NEW Review 
 

Happy Pride Weekend, Everyone!
What movies did you catch this week?

Somehow I kicked off the weekend by visiting a facade of the Psycho house (Mommy issues for everyone!) with my bestie and The Flick Filosopher who was visiting from London. But I also caught Genius, The Neon Demon and Swiss Army Man and more on those soon.

Finding Treasure (with Pixar's Dory)

It will surprise you less than Dory, that she's the new queen of the box office. Finding Dory, the sequel to Pixar's most beloved non-Toy based title with mainstream audiences (not with us though - we're WALL•E / Incredibles people round these parts), broke records when it swam into theaters Thursday night. The bankability of a little Hart (Kevin) and a Big Johnson (Dwayne "The Rock") made an impact in second position, as well, though it's worth noting that pairing them didn't remotely result in twice their usual opening weekend grosses (these are fairly typical for either of them. Maybe their fanbases are too similar?) Between those two movies requiring nearly 8,000 screens between them it was a rough weekend for other movies with most big and small releases losing a ton of movie houses (yes even Love and Friendship and The Lobster which both had strong momentum until they lost theaters. *sniffle*). There's a lot of summer left but there's only one last tidal wave of box office as we move towards the July 4th holiday and Independence Day, The BFG, and Tarzan soon battle for dominance.

TOP WIDE
arrows indicate gaining or losing screens
🔺01 Finding Dory $136.1 NEW Review
🔺02 Central Intelligence $34.5 NEW
🔺03 The Conjuring 2 $15.5 (cum. $71.7) 
▫️04 Now You See Me 2 $9.6 (cum. $41.3) 
🔺05 Warcraft $6.5 (cum. $37.7) Six Questions

Jude Law & Colin Firth in GENIUSTOP  LIMITED
Under 1000 screens. Excluding previously wide. 
🔻01 Love & Friendship $797K (cum. $10.9) Review, Podcast
🔻02 The Lobster $647K (cum. $6.3)  Reviewish, Podcast
🔺03 Maggie's Plan $471K (cum. $1.8)  Review
🔺04 Genius $306K (cum. $442K) Review 
🔺05 Weiner $144K (cum. $1) Review 
 

WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND? 
I caught Neon Demon (ooh boy. that's going to be tough to write about) and rewatched Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) - our 50th anniversary celebration of that classic begins tomorrow!

Patrick & Vera conjure up a big opening weekend

Don't be scared, Patrick. It's just money!

While The Conjuring 2 didn't quite equal its predecessor it came close which is saying a lot in this summer of underperforming sequels. It also helped that it's budget was only $40 million so it's already well on its way to profit. Contrast that to Warcraft's $160 million budget with a $24 million opening. Ouch. Still its foreign performance (nearing $300 million) should help it turn a profit. But one is reminded of The Golden Compass, another would be franchise that chose to end on a cliffhanger rather than telling a full story. Despite doing well overseas it never got a sequel.  Maybe let your audience decide if they like your movie before ending with "to be continued..."?

None of the new limited releases did particularly well including our beloved The Fits which earned $16K in just 4 theaters. Even Love & Friendship & The Lobster appear to have peaked last weekend but we'll see if they can hold screens or expand again next week.

Expect a ton of the current movies to lose all oxygen next weekend when probable behemoth Finding Dory swims into town.

arrows indicate gaining or losing screens

TOP TEN WIDE
🔺01 The Conjuring 2 $40.3 NEW 
🔺02 Warcraft $24.3 NEW
🔺03 Now You See Me 2 $23 NEW 
▫️04 TMNT: Out of the Shadows $14.8 (cum. $61) 
🔺05 X-Men Apocalypse $10 (cum. $136.3) )  Review, Podcast
🔻06 Me Before You $9.2 (cum. $36.8) Review
🔻07 Angry Birds $6.7 (cum. $98.1)
🔻08 Alice Through the Looking Glass $5.5 (cum. $62.4) 
🔻09 Captain America: Civil War $4.3 (cum. $396.8) Review
🔻10 The Jungle Book $2.7 (cum. $352.6)

TOP TEN LIMITED
Under 1000 screens. Excluding previously wide. 
🔺01 Love & Friendship $1.5 (cum. $9.5) Review, Podcast
▫️02 The Lobster $991K (cum. $5.1)  Reviewish, Podcast
🔺03 Maggie's Plan $690K (cum. $1.1)  Review
🔺04 Te3n $284K NEW 
🔺05 Weiner $166K (cum. $760K) Review 
🔻06 The Man Who Knew Infinity $161K (cum. $3.1) 
🔻07 The Meddler $135K (cum. $3.9) Review 
🔺08 The Wailing $133K (cum. $551K) 
🔺09 Sing Street $69K (cum. $2.9)  Review, Who's the MVP?, Podcast 
🔻10 A Bigger Splash $60K (cum. $1.8) Reviewish, Podcast
 

WHAT DID YOU SEE THIS WEEKEND? I caught Warcraft (don't judge) and The Conjuring 2 (fun scares and Patrick sings!!!!!) and the Lupita Nyong'o Tony-nominated play Eclipsed (heartwrenching). Busy weekend.