2016’s The Legend of Tarzan was a critical and commercial failure, even though it had assembled many of the ingredients that could have made it an adventure classic. The movie, which starred Alexander Skarsgård as Tarzan and Margot Robbie as Jane, was a retelling of the story of the iconic Edgar Rice Burroughs character. Tarzan is a multimedia icon, and his story was adapted to the screen as early as 1918 in the silent film Tarzan of the Apes, with more than four dozen adaptations to follow, including Disney’s Oscar-winning 1999 animated movie Tarzan.

The 2016 title is the most recent Tarzan movie to hit the big screen, and its general reception may be one reason that the property has since gone dormant on the big screen for nearly a decade. In addition to most likely failing to turn a profit in theaters, it was excoriated by critics and met with apathy from general audiences. At the time of writing, the movie still holds a dismal Rotten Tomatoes score of 35% from critics, with a slightly better but still Rotten score of 58% from audiences.

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The Legend Of Tarzan Couldn’t Live Up To Its Massive Budget

The Movie Cost Much More Than Many Of Its Competitors

Although its box office take was likely curtailed in the wake of critics’ negative Legend of Tarzan reviews, the 2016 movie still made quite a bit of money. The title grossed $357.2 million worldwide, making it the 23rd highest-grossing movie of the year, outgrossing many prominent titles including Trolls, Star Trek Beyond, The Conjuring 2, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, Ghostbusters, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.

However, in spite of its large gross, The Legend of Tarzan likely failed to make money. Typically, a movie needs to earn back two-and-a-half times its budget in order to earn a profit. Because the movie cost $180 million to produce, its break-even point was likely somewhere around $450 million, meaning that it probably fell short by nearly $100 million. Thus, many titles that had lower grosses earned better profits, including The Conjuring 2, which grossed $321.8 million against a much slimmer $40 million budget.

The Legend Of Tarzan Wasted A Great Cast And A Popular IP

It Also Starred A Two-Time Oscar Winner

Although the Legend of Tarzan cast has gone on to even greater success since 2016, it already had a strong foundation with Skarsgård fresh off of True Blood and Robbie recently having her breakthrough in The Wolf of Wall Street. The ensemble cast was also packed with well-known names, including Samuel L. Jackson, Djimon Hounsou, and Christoph Waltz. The director, David Yates, was also coming off a box office hot streak with the final four Harry Potter movies. However, the movie’s budget and reviews seem to have prevented it from being the substantial hit it could have been otherwise.

David Yates takes a stab at the iconic literary character from Edgar Rice Burroughs in The Legend of Tarzan. This action-adventure film follows Tarzan years after adjusting to London’s human society. Learning about a recent explosion of slavery in his home jungles in Africa, Tarzan returns to deal with the cruel regime imprisoning the Congolese natives and the animal kingdom he called family.

Director

David Yates

Release Date

July 1, 2016

Runtime

110 minutes