Universal’s Jurassic World Dominion is headed for a so-so opening day in China of about $15 million (RMB 100 million), according to early forecasts from regional box office tracker Artisan Gateway.
The Colin Trevorrow-directed film scored $673,000 (RMB 4.5 million) in midnight previews Thursday night and had earned $6.4 million (RMB 43 million) as of midday Friday.
However, the tentpole is trailing its franchise predecessor, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, by a wide margin. Released in China in 2018, the prior sequel earned RMB 13.7 million in previews, RMB 202 million on its opening day, eventually reaching a total of $261 million (RMB 1.7 billion).
Still, Dominion will easily rank as the biggest Hollywood opening in China this year, topping The Batman’s lackluster $12.1 million China debut in March. (Some of 2022’s top Hollywood earners like Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick and Marvel’s Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness have been denied China releases by Beijing regulators due to political reasons.)
Dominion is contending with a far more depressed China film market, however. Although many urban centers, including Shanghai, are emerging from recent, economically damaging COVID lockdowns, a smattering of cinemas across the country remain closed as a public health precaution and consumer activity continues to be suppressed.
As of Monday, China’s full-year box office total was just $2.4 billion, down a whopping 40 percent from a $3.9 billion revenue total at the same point in 2021.