Spielberg’s newest film The BFG was an uncommon miss for the film industry’s highest grossing director of all time. After having worked with almost every other major studio in town Mr. Spielberg’s first production with Disney turned out to be a letdown. With a reported shooting budget of $140 million, the hopes of a turnaround rested on international sales but things haven’t looked good on that front so far. The BFG has only played in two foreign markets, Russia and Australia, earning just $2 million and $1.9 million there while failing to take first place in either country. The BFG, or Big Friendly Giant, is based on Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book. A giant, played by Mark Rylance, strikes up a friendship with an orphan girl named Sophie, and protects her from other man-eating giants after she finds herself in the valley where all the giants live. The film did have mostly positive reviews but ultimately wasn’t able to stand up to the competition in a 4^th of July weekend with several new offerings. And with Disney’s own competition coming from Finding Dory, still number one in the U.S. market on its third outing.

More on our delightful and forgetful blue fish later, but first let’s go to Warner Bros.’ The Legend of Tarzan. It finished ahead of The BFG but was also well short of expectations for a movie of its scale. With a budget of $180 million, this picture was intended to be a tent pole and the first big offering in the studio’s summer slate but the long 4^th of July weekend delivered a domestic return of just $45.6 million. Tarzan is directed by David Yates, and stars Alexander Skarsgard as Tarzan, while Margot Robbie plays the wild man’s perpetually distressed wife Jane. In this iteration of author Edgar Burroughs beloved wild man’s adventures, Tarzan has moved back to his parents’ home country of England, where he is made a Lord and lives a life of peaceful luxury. Rumors of the atrocities being committed by Belgian colonists in his native Congo convince the ape-man to journey back to the jungles where he was raised and he finds himself trapped in a deadly confrontation with Belgian army captain Leon Rom, played by Christoph Waltz, who kidnaps Jane and hopes to enslave a warlike tribe and use them to mine a stash of precious diamonds.

It had a slow start overseas as well, taking $3.1 million in Russia and $4 million in South Korea, and will start moving into European countries next weekend, when fewer of the continents biggest countries’ focus will be in the UEFA Soccer Cup. 

Back to Finding Dory, Pixar’s latest success managed to hold off both of these would-be blockbuster titles and claim the number one spot in the U.S. and abroad, finishing its third weekend at home with $50 million while taking $36.3 million overseas. It has now earned a cumulative of $548 million and along with Disney’s other megahits of 2016 will take a lot of the sting out of The BFG’s poor opening. Another winner was The Purge: Election Year, from Universal and the success factory of Blumhouse. With a budget in the  $10 million range, the horror sequel grossed a total of $31.5 million. Fox's Independence Day: Resurgence rounded up the top 5, with $20.2 million for the four-day holiday week. Its domestic total is now just over $ 75 million, the global cumulative is at $250 million.

Next weekend we’ll see if this frame’s disappointments can turn things around and take a look at The Secret Life of Pets’ U.S. debut and buddy comedy Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. 

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