The U.S. Box Office Will Have Its Most Lackluster Fourth of July Weekend Since 2001

For the first time since 2001, Box Office Mojo predicts that no new movie opening over the Fourth of July weekend will raise enough money to crack the top twenty such openings of all time.

In each of the last twelve years, at least one film has opened over the holiday weekend that rivaled the all-time best Independence Day openers, but this week sees only two new movies in wide release -- the Melissa McCarthy-driven road comedy Tammy and Deliver Us From Evil, the latest from Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson -- and neither is expected to crack $25 million for the three-day weekend.

The $24 million Tammy is expected to generate this weekend would drop it at the #25 spot all time, below 2009's Public Enemies but displacing Mel Gibson's 2000 action-drama The Patriot.

Deliver Us From Evil, expected to make around $20 million, will then have to work to catch up to Scary Movie 2 -- one of a pair of 2001 films currently holding down the #28 and #29 spot on the all-time list (the other is Cats vs. Dogs) with $20.5 million.

The weak openings don't necessarily mean the worst box office performance in recent years; after all, Transformers; Age of Extinction is expected to take #1 this weekend with more than $40 million, which should help the box office along to respectability. Still, the year has begun to lag behind 2013 in total revenue, and this weekend will illustrate that point nicely; last year, the top Fourth of July opener was Descpicable Me 2 with $83 million and The Lone Ranger came in at #2 with $29 million. Last year's #3 movie, The Heat, may well outpace Tammy, likely setting off a discussion about McCarthy's viability (a silly one; The Heat also had Sandra Bullock so it's hardly an apples-to-apples conversation).