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?

110 in the Tweet

It's that time of the week (the weekend!) when we groggily awaken and seek out bon mots rather than essays to amuse us. If you do the same these bite-sized morsels are just the ticket. In this week's roundup: Lea Michele, Nico Tortorella, Nicolas Winding Refn, Marvel's peak, Dory's acclaim, and more.

It's all after the jump... 

// BLUE LAGOON // pic.twitter.com/UCMAnWQn4b

— Lea Michele (@msleamichele) June 22, 2016

Click to read more ...

Complete the (Fishy) Sentence

Eager to see where you're at with this since you were so hushed about the review. Have at it in the comments.

Finding Dory is to Finding Nemo as _____ is to ________." 

(Don't feel the need to be too literal)

Review: Finding Dory

This review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad

One of the best things about breakout supporting characters is that the fandom surrounding them comes honestly. Scene-stealers aren't handed their movies, but earn them. So it went with Dory, Ellen DeGeneres's forgetful blue tang who swam circles around every other character in Finding Nemo (2003), figuratively speaking, though she did sometimes swim in actual circles since she couldn't remember where she was going.

Thirteen years later, though Finding Dory takes place just after Finding Nemo ends, we're swimming in circles again with Dory, via a suspiciously similar movie. Let us count the ways...

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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!