Question

While critics of the film were mixed, the critics that count (the public) took to the Tarzan films like a hippo to water.

This is from the website http://www.erbzine.com/mag6/0611.html

When released in March of 1932 the film was an immediate popular and critical sensation becoming one of the top ten box office hits of the year. Johnny Weissmuller, despite, or maybe because of, his naked physique, was hailed as the biggest new star of the early '30s. Tarzan fever had hit and the ERB media blitz had begun: more films and novels, Sunday and daily comic strips, comic strip reprints in various book compilations, new magazine appearances - pulp and slick, radio shows, Tarzan clubs, advertising promotions, trading cards, toys, articles, and imitators galore.

While ERB himself was saddened by the 'dumbing down' of Tarzan in this movie, he could appreciate the popularity of his character's appeal:

Commenting on the success of the film in Los Angeles, ERB noted on May 9, 1932: "The rush was so great Saturday and Sunday that they advertised in this morning's paper that they are forced to put on seven shows a day, starting about nine in the morning."