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By Erich Schwartzel 

The Fourth of July weekend has been the time for Hollywood to launch some of its biggest hits. But there were few fireworks at the holiday box office this weekend.

Two of the weekend's new wide releases, "The Legend of Tarzan" and "The BFG," cost a combined $315 million to produce but arrived to middling results, the latest examples of big-budget disappointments in a summer struggling to keep up with last year's record-breaking performance.

Instead, each movie was topped by the three-week-old "Finding Dory," which collected an estimated $50.2 million over the four-day weekend for a total domestic haul of $380.5 million. "Dory," a Pixar Animation Studios movie released by Walt Disney Co., will soon pass another Disney title, "Captain America: Civil War," as the top-grossing movie of the year so far.

"The Legend of Tarzan," starring Alexander Skarsgård as the man in the jungle, followed in second place with $45.6 million. The release from Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. performed better than most in Hollywood were expecting, but its domestic opening is still too low for a movie with a production budget of about $175 million.

Disney's "The BFG," director Steven Spielberg's take on the classic Roald Dahl children's book, fared much worse. It grossed $22.3 million in fourth place, a paltry showing for a movie that cost about $140 million to produce.

"Tarzan" and "The BFG" are the kind of all-audience titles meant to pack auditoriums over the long weekend, but it was an R-rated horror movie that was the only new release to post solid results.

"The Purge: Election Year," the third installment in the horror-film franchise, collected $34.8 million in third place and became one of the few sequels this summer to outperform its predecessor.

"The Purge" cost about $10 million to make and was released by Comcast Corp.'s Universal Pictures. "This is a success already," said Nick Carpou, Universal's president of domestic distribution.

The holiday weekend can be a fickle one for Hollywood -- depending on when the Fourth of July falls, most moviegoers might not have off work at a convenient time to hit the multiplex. But the weekend has often been the blastoff for major summer blockbusters such as the original "Transformers," "Armageddon" and the Will Smith hits "Independence Day" and "Men in Black."

It has been more unpredictable lately. This weekend was reminiscent of the Fourth of July box office last year, when new releases "Terminator: Genisys" and "Magic Mike XXL" fizzled as another three-week-old Pixar movie, "Inside Out," topped the charts.

In 2013, "Despicable Me 2" kicked off a hugely profitable run over the July 4 weekend, while "The Lone Ranger" became one of the most high-profile flops in recent Hollywood history.

At the same time, studios have found recent success in delivering movies at unconventional times of the year. The blockbuster "Guardians of the Galaxy" hit theaters as the summer was winding down in August 2014, and "Deadpool" remains one of the years' top-grossing movies despite arriving in the doldrums of mid-February.

"There has been less dependence on some of the historical launching pads, " said Dave Hollis, Disney's executive vice president of distribution.

Mr. Hollis said it was a "frustrating" weekend for "The BFG," which scored well with audiences but failed to see grosses "matching up in the way you'd like."

Warner Bros. is looking to overseas audiences to help "The Legend of Tarzan."

"This was a global play," said Jeff Goldstein, Warner's executive vice president of distribution. The movie has opened in 19 international markets so far and collected $19.3 million, with major countries like China still to come.

"Tarzan" and "The BFG" scored "A-" grades from opening-weekend audiences, according to the CinemaScore market research firm, which could help word-of-mouth business in coming weeks. "The Purge" received a "B+."

Year-to-date box office is down 2.5%, according to comScore.

Write to Erich Schwartzel at erich.schwartzel@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 04, 2016 20:24 ET (00:24 GMT)

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