Movies for the Fourth: Will Tarzan and The BFG Bomb?

The Fourth of July weekend should be a great opportunity for big-budget movies to make a big splash at the box office, but it's looking like the weekend's two biggest releases are unlikely to deliver blockbuster results. In fact, the winner for the weekend could turn out to be a low-budget horror movie.

Two big movies will hit screens over the holiday weekend, The Legend of Tarzan and The BFG, and both have big production budgets and high expectations from their studios. However, according to social media activity, neither film is likely to be a big hit, and both have the potential to be major bombs.

That's not too surprising in the case of The Legend of Tarzan. Despite numerous film treatments over the decades, it's been nearly a century since Tarzan had much significance as a cultural figure. And between the ongoing Planet of the Apes franchise and the recent hit The Jungle Book, audiences might be experiencing a bit of ape-man overload.

The BFG's lack of buzz is a bit more puzzling. It's got Steven Spielberg's name attached to it, and it's based on a popular kids' book. But effects-heavy, big-budget movies based on kids' books have had an inconsistent track record at the box office lately, and Spielberg may not be able to deliver automatic hits the way he used to.

In the end, both these films could see opening-weekend grosses under $30 million, and if the weekend is especially wacky, the top spot could go to The Purge: Election Year, the latest installment in the low-budget horror franchise.