A long, long time ago in a pre- Star Wars Hollywood, the crown jewel of the summer movie season was the Fourth of July. The studios regularly put out some of their biggest movies in the weeks leading up to the holiday, building up word of mouth so that once the Fourth arrived audiences would hopefully pull themselves away from barbeques, swimming pools and fireworks to head to the movies. Of course, the old rules changed, and summer crept into May from June before invading April, March and even February. In 1975 when Jaws came out in late June we were excited to see the big new thing over the Fourth. Now, by the time the Holiday arrives we're already suffering from blockbuster fatigue and complaining that there's nothing new worth seeing.
This year for the Fourth, Hollywood offered up two really big gambles ( The Legend of Tarzan, The BFG) and a micro-budget horror sequel ( The Purge: Election Year), and last year it was a doomed reboot-sequel ( Terminator: Genisys) and another ode to Channing Tatum's abs ( Magic Mike XXL). However, this year audiences ultimately preferred to check out a Pixar movie ( Finding Dory), and the same was true last year ( Inside Out). Is that the new thing now, or has it always kind of been like this? In other words, what were some of the big movies which came out over Independence Day, and how did they fare at the box office?
Well, here's a list highlighting the highest-grossing new movie for each July 4th weekend since 1985:
Also Opening That Weekend: Red Sonja, The Emerald Forest
Position in the top 10: #8
#1 Movie that weekend: The Karate Kid Part II ($6.2m)
Also Opening That Weekend: The Great Mouse Detective, About Last Night, Under the Cherry Moon, Big Trouble in Little China
Position in the top 10: #3
#1 Movie that weekend: Dragnet ($7m)
Also Opening That Weekend: Adventures in Babysitting
Also Opening That Weekend: Nothing
1989: Karate Kid Part III
Also Opening That Weekend: Great Balls of Fire, Do the Right Thing
1991: Terminator 2: Judgement Day
1992: A League of Their Own
Also Opening That Weekend: Boomerang
Also Opening That Weekend: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Re-Issue, Son-in-Law
Also Opening That Weekend: Blown Away, I Love Trouble, Baby's Day Out, Little Big League
Also Opening That Weekend: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Judge Dredd
Also Opening That Weekend: Phenomenon
Also Opening That Weekend: Nothing
Also Opening That Weekend: Nothing
Also Opening That Weekend: Rebound
2009: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
2011: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
2012: The Amazing Spider-Man
Also Opening That Weekend: Savages, Katy Perry: Part of Me 
2015: Terminator: Genisys
Weekend box office: $27 million
Position in the top 10: #3
#1 Movie That Weekend: Inside Out ($29.7m)
