Box Office: 'Independence Day 2' Underwhelms With $41.6M

Independence Day: Resurgence' Claudette Barius/Twentieth Century Fox

'Independence Day: Resurgence' makes up ground overseas with $102.1 million; elsewhere in the U.S., 'The Shallows' has a sharper bite than expected, while 'Free State of Jones' and 'The Neon Demon' are D.O.A.

Roland Emmerich's Independence Day: Resurgence failed to ignite big fireworks at the North American office over the weekend, where it came in behind expectations with an estimated $41.6 million from 4,068 theaters.

While that's hardly a disastrous start, the long-awaited sequel to the 1996 blockbuster will need to do sizeable business overseas to land in the black for Fox. So far, the tentpole seems to be getting its wish, debuting to $102.1 million from 57 foreign markets, including China, for a global debut of $143.7 million.

Emmerich's film, which earned a mediocre B Cinema Score, was no match for holdover Finding Dory, which continued to wow in its second weekend, paddling to an estimated $73.2 million from 4,305 theaters for a first-place finish. The animated sequel has now earned $286.6 million domestically and $397 million globally. And if Sunday's estimate holds, Finding Dory will boast the biggest second weekend domestically for an animated film, beating 2004's Shrek 2 ($72.2 million), not accounting for inflation. Final numbers will be released Monday.

Another animated summer tentpole dipped its toes in the water for the first time this weekend — Illumination Entertainment and Universal's The Secret Life of Pets, which debuted in the U.K. post-Brexit to a stellar $14.3 million, one of the top showings of all time for an animated title and besting Independence Day: Resurgence ($7.3 million). Secret Life of Pets debuts in the U.S. on July 8.

Resurgence placed No. 2 behind Finding Dory in North America. Overseas, it topped the weekend foreign chart, led by China with $37.3 million. But in China itself, it placed No. 2 behind Now You See Me 2, which raced to a dazzling $43.3 million, a record for Lionsgate and bringing that movie's global total to $159.8 million.

Emmerich's film sports a hefty net budget of $165 million and was made without Will Smith, who opted to sit out the sequel. The first pic, released 20 years ago over the Fourth of July holiday, broke records on its way to temporarily becoming one of the top-grossing films of all time with $817.4 million worldwide, not adjusted for inflation.

"There's still about 30 percent of the international footprint to go, so at the end of the day, this popcorn tentpole will be in good shape," said Fox distribution chief Chris Aronson.

Independence Day: Resurgence skewed heavily male for an all-audience tentpole (58 percent), helping to explain the subdued results, while 64 percent of ticket buyers were over the age of 25. Generally speaking, the film underperformed on the East Coast.

Resurgence is set two decades after the events of the original pic (including the spectacular destruction of the White House and other iconic landmarks) and sees the same menacing aliens once again wreaking havoc.

Smith might be absent, but a number of other stars appearing in the first film reprised their roles, including Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum and Judd Hirsch. Newcomers include Liam Hemsworth, who plays a hot-shot military pilot whose parents died in the first alien attack and who is now dating the former first daughter (Maika Monroe), and Jessie Usher, who plays the stepson of Smith's character, now deceased.