Dinosaurs return to the box office this weekend as Universal and Amblin’s Jurassic World Dominion opens in more than 4,600 theaters across North America.
The summer tentpole sould have no trouble taking the top spot away from ruling champ Top Gun: Maverick, but the Top Gun sequel will still be a formidable contender in its third weekend and could take a certain amount of business away from the dinos.
Whatever the outcome, it should be one of the biggest weekends since the COVID-19 crisis commenced, and is a key test of whether the marketplace can expand enough in the pandemic era to support multiple titles. In pre-pandemic times, the summer season offered one Hollywood tentpole after another.
More bullish pundits believe Jurassic World Dominion will open well north of $125 million, considering Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom opened to $148 million in June 2018. And in 2015, Jurassic World debuted to $208.8 million.
One advantage: Dominion will take away Imax and premium large format screens from Top Gun 2. Another advantage: actors Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and BD Wong reunite for the first time since starring in director Steven Spielberg’s first Jurassic Park (1993).
Director and Jurassic World architect Colin Trevorrow, after sitting out Fallen Kingdom, returns to helm Jurassic World Dominion, which is the final title in the trilogy that has been anchored by actors Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.
This time out, the dinosaurs live — and hunt — alongside humans all over the world. Jurassic World Dominion boasts never-seen dinosaurs and new visual effects.
The film has already taken in more than $55 million internationally across 15 markets, with strong openings in South Korea and across Latin America, including Mexico and Brazil. The movie opens in a raft of other markets this weekend, including in China, where it is one of the few Hollywood tentpoles to get a release (Top Gun 2 is not playing in the Middle Kingdom.)