Mendelson: Legend of Tarzan Box Office Muscle Proves Superhero Fatigue is Still a Myth

Forbes | by Scott Mendelson I will admit it. Heading into the July 4th weekend, I thought The Legend of Tarzan was dead meat. But while the film may have still cost too much and may not actually be a money maker, it may end up being one of the bigger live-action grossers of the summer. And it held rather well on its second weekend, especially for a July 4th live-action release that opened on a Friday, dropping just 46% to bring its ten-day cume to $81 million off a $46m Fri-Mon debut. It will top $100m by the end of next weekend with a $125m domestic total now entirely plausible. People saw it, they liked it, and they are continuing to see it after opening weekend. The film’s relative success is yet more proof that “superhero fatigue” is a fiction.

I discussed this back when Deadpool broke out in a major way last February, but it bears repeating as we turn the corner on a year that was supposed to suffer due to so-called “superhero fatigue.” We had a “whopping” eight comic book superhero movies slated for 2016, minus one when Channing Tatum’s theoretical Gambit got shifted to (for the moment) March 13, 2024. We now have just two comic book superhero movies remaining for the year, including one that I’m predicting to be a breakout and another that should be relatively fine. And not only did four of five of them thus far do pretty okay, but part of the reason for Legend of Tarzan’s comparative success is that Warner Bros./Time Warner TWX -0.37% Inc. successfully sold the reboot as an old-fashioned superhero movie.

Looking at the domestic box office thus far, it is (among live-action releases) the superhero movies that are still leading the pack. Looking at the North American box office champions, we see two kinds of films in the “upper class” of grossers. You have splashy animated features (that’s a separate conversation), and you have comic book superhero movies. The leaders thus far are (deep breath) Finding Dory ($423 million), Captain America: Civil War ($406m), Deadpool ($363m), The Jungle Book ($360m), Zootopia ($340m), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice ($330m), X-Men: Apocalypse, ($154m), Kung Fu Panda 3 ($141m), Secret Life of Pets (at least $110m+ as of today), plus wherever Tarzan ends up.

Read the full article at Forbes.