Dory keeps swimming, Spielberg's BFG is a giant Flop

To no one's surprise the trio of new releases failed to unseat the three weeks champion Finding Dory which show's no signs of slowing down. The Disney/Pixar family film grosses $41.9 million this weekend and is projected to close the 4 days holiday weekend with $50.5 million. The film has already outgrossed Finding Nemo domestically and is expected to surpass Toy Story as Pixar's highest grossing film in the domestic numbers. On the foreign front is a different story. For some reason this sequel is not doing as good as in here or as the prior one did. While domestically 'Dory' has grossed $372 million and climbing, at the international market has grossed just $166 million or just 30% of its worldwide grosses while 'Nemo's international grosses made up over 62% of its worldwide earnings. With just a handful markets left to open, I don't see 'Dory' getting anywhere near 'Nemo's total foreign numbers.

Debuting in the second place and doing much better than the doom predictions is WB's costly The Legend of Tarzan which took $38.1 million. While predictions were off, this is far from a bonafide hit. The film cost $180 million to produce plus an undisclosed amount for marketing so we are looking at another big budget disappointment. Now the studio is hoping the film can recoup its cost overseas (it opened in 19 markets with a timid jungle yell of $18.8 million).

Debuting in the third place and already grossing three times its budget is the third part in the 'Purge' franchise The Purge: Election Year which took a smashing $30.8 million. Whichever way it goes after this weekend, this movie already is profitable hit and warrants another sequel regardless of what critics said about this one or the whole franchise.

Steven Spielberg's long absence from commercial family friendly epics apparently have extinguished his Midas touch as his universally praised fantasy film The BFG is a colossal bomb. The film debuted in the fourth spot with a disastrous $19.8 million. Taking in consideration that the film had a $140 million, but had a massive marketing which could easily propel the total costs to $200 million, this could spell the end of the brilliant filmmaker access to unlimited budgets for his vanity projects. I am not amazed one bit by the performance of this film as all its trailers left me cold and uninterested. Heck, I can ran to buy tickets to watch 'The Shallows' than watching this film FREE at home!

Finally Independence Day: Resurgence had a 60% in its second week and landed in the fifth spot with $16.5 million for a current total of $72 million.