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Legend of Tarzan First Foreign Box Office Numbers Are In — So Far So Good

Legend of Tarzan (Movie), Legend of Tarzan Box Office

The Hollywood Reporter’s Saturday morning box office update includes the following from Warner Bros. regarding the initial foreign numbers for Legend of Tarzan:

Tarzan launches in 19 markets this weekend, including South Korea and Russia, and it will open in a number of other major markets next week before landing in China on July 19. It’s earned $7.1 million in its first three days, earning $1.3 million in Russia and $1.5 million in South Korea.

Debuting to a dominant #1 on Thursday with a 46% share of the top 5 films in the market, Russia grossed an impressive Rbl 43 ($660k) from 2,166 screens, outranking fellow opener THE BFG.  Opening day results came in 45% higher than the opening day of RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and 5% higher than SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN.  Adding in Friday grosses, the cume is now Rbl 86m ($1.3m).

After a full day of previews on Wednesday, Korea opened on Thursday to an excellent KRW 471m ($401k) from 539 screens.  We currently rank #2 behind the opening of local title, FAMILYHOOD and ahead of other local opener THE HUNT.  We are by far the #1 foreign film in the market surpassing INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE (2nd wknd) by a wide margin.  The 3 day cume is now Won 1.7b ($1.5m).

This is very good news but too soon to make too much of it. Stay tuned. Foreign is going to be absolutely critical as to whether or not Legend of Tarzan is regarded as a success…… which of course feeds into the sequel discussion, which was dead on the vine yesterday, but alive today.

4 comments

  • My belief is that too many advance reviews from small-time venues end up being movie killers when dropped in the hands of pseudo-popkulture maven who are only interested in sounding knowledgeable without actually having the background. The self-styled “critics” only require an internet connection and a web page to put their ideas online. Too bad so many of them have the ability to “suspend disbelief” when it comes to their favorites but can’t approach other films with the same attitude. The movie-goers will have their say and will make the final decision, not the nay-saying “prognosticators.”

    • I think that’s a very good point and one that I agree with in principle. But then when I go to RT and click “Top Critics” instead of “All Critics”, for most of the weekend “Top Critics” has been worse than “All Critics” — although I just did it now and it was 34% for all critics and 37% for top critics. I wish the spread were better than that . . . my point, though, is that while agree that all these “pseudo-popkulture mavens” can skew things …. in this case those guys are tracking pretty closely with the big boys. It’s only teh fans who are on a completely different page. And that is somehow fitting, isn’t it, for ERB stories?

      • I don’t have the search skills you have, Michael, and you know the film business a lot better than I do, for sure. The movie brings up a lot of different feelings in all the critics and it’s interesting to see the kinds of angles they approach it from. You could make a list of the points they use: racist, boring, “colonialist optics” (my favorite), doesn’t fit the Disney version, raised by gorillas (!), etc. So many of them are the same. The good critics approach the film from the standpoint of a romance, an adventure, they take the film for what it is. I really wish we could read some of the overseas reviews: from India, Japan, Europe, Scandinavia, there are avid Tarzan movie fans in those countries and it would be interesting to see their reactions.

  • This was published today: “The film grossed $35 million worldwide at the box office on its July 1 opening weekend, besting industry projections of $22 – 33 million.”

    fox4kc.com/2016/07/03/fox-4-chats-with-the-director-of-the-legend-of-tarzan/

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