Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.cbr.com
Margot Robbie’s The Legend of Tarzan has unexpectedly risen to the top of the streaming charts, ten years after its release. The movie just came out on HBO Max in select regions on Nov. 6 and almost instantly became the top film.
Per FlixPatrol, The Legend of Tarzan is currently the No. 1 most-watched movie in the world on HBO Max. Although the movie is not currently available to watch on HBO Max in the United States, it has reached No. 1 in 19 countries. It can currently be streamed for free on Tubi in the U.S.
The Legend of Tarzan Is a Follow-Up to the Classic Story
Almost everyone knows the story of Tarzan. The tale originally came from the 1912 novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was later popularized for children in 1999 with Disney’s animated adventure film Tarzan. The original movie follows an orphan who is raised by a family of gorillas in Africa after his biological parents are killed by a leopard. He grows up in the jungle, and as an adult, he finally meets other humans. The main conflict of the story occurs when he must decide between leaving with the humans or staying with his animal family.
However, the 2016 film The Legend of Tarzan picks up after Tarzan leaves the jungle for civilization. Alexander Skarsgård plays John Clayton III, 5th Earl of Greystroke/Tarzan, while Margot Robbie co-stars as Jane Parker, Tarzan’s wife. The movie also stars Samuel L. Jackson, Djimon Hounsou, and Christoph Waltz. It was directed by David Yates.
In the film, it’s been nearly a decade since Tarzan left Africa to live in Victorian England with Jane. But according to the movie’s logline, “Danger lurks on the horizon as Leon Rom (Waltz), a treacherous envoy for King Leopold, devises a scheme that lures the couple to the Congo. Rom plans to capture Tarzan and deliver him to an old enemy in exchange for diamonds. When Jane becomes a pawn in his devious plot, Tarzan must return to the jungle to save the woman he loves.”
Critics Hated The Legend of Tarzan
The Legend of Tarzan was ultimately a box office failure. The movie grossed $126.6 million in the United States and Canada and $230.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $356.7 million against a $180 million production budget. To break even, the movie would have had to earn at least $400 million. In the end, financial analysts estimated that Warner Bros’ lost around $40 million on the film, although the studio claims that it broke even.
Meanwhile, critics and audiences alike were disappointed. Currently, The Legend of Tarzan has a 35% critic score and 58% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. ScreenRant’s Sandy Schaefer wrote, “There’s a great Tarzan adventure somewhere in Legend of Tarzan, but the movie is too overstuffed and rough around the edges to fly high.” And Devid Edelstein at New York Magazine/Vulture said, “The Legend of Tarzan plays as if a dog ate part of the script.”
The Legend of Tarzan is streaming on HBO Max in select regions, and on Tubi in the United States.
- Release Date
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June 29, 2016
- Runtime
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109 minutes
- Director
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David Yates
