Take the baton and pass the torch over to one of the other successful IPs in your repertoire, Universal. If it’s not the goofy lovable Minions or the evil Gru and his family taking on the world in Despicable Me, then you can comfortably rely on the dinosaurs we’ve been dealing with rampaging downtown to take their teeth and clench toward victory. Over the five-day holiday, Jurassic World Rebirth earned in line with its predecessors’ opening weekends, Fallen Kingdom ($148 million in 2018) and Dominion ($145 million in 2022), with $147.3 million domestically. With a little over $318 million globally, that makes the latest dino feature the second-biggest opening in the year thus far (only behind Lilo & Stitch). This IP, featuring a cast of newcomers helmed by Scarlett Johansson (who is now the highest-earning actor of all time at the global box office, congrats!) and Mahershala Ali, continues to remain a vivacious option for the general public across all demographics. Folks do enjoy the monstrous presence of the dinosaurs, even if they’re finding the formula very monotonous, as it’s more of a “who’s the next evil greedy corporation that wants to utilize dinosaurs against humanity?” or “Which of these cast members gets snatched by a newly genetically mutated dinosaur conjured up?”.
Universal still knows it can deliver the goods and then some, especially in the battleground for which studio can light up the well with another cinematic universe. Marvel Studios once had lightning in a bottle for the entirety of the 2010s before oversaturation and a lack of a feasible direction bit on its tail in the 2020s (except for nostalgic chapters). But, Universal still could make a difference when Avengers: Age of Ultron “only” snagged a little over $1.4 billion in 2015, while Furious 7 and Jurassic World toppled $1.5 billion. Oh, and they could do it again in 2023 when The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Oppenheimer delivered stellar summer goods (while “just” falling shy of WB’s Barbie). If we’re being conservative, the seventh installment in the Jurassic Park (or Jurassic World 4, take your pick) can safely get past $850 million globally, unless it gets clobbered by Superman or Fantastic Four for the summer ride.
In other news unrelated to dinosaurs, F1: The Movie earned $26.06 million in its second weekend, passing $110 million domestically sometime today and nearing $300 million worldwide. The Brad Pitt-led feature has already toppled Ford v Ferrari‘s $226 million worldwide, and is doing great business for a high-budget Apple product. If it can maintain good momentum, perhaps the aspect of the budget this time around can be less of a cause for concern. How to Train Your Dragon earned $11 million in its fourth weekend and has crossed $516 million worldwide (it will pass The Hidden World‘s tally by tomorrow).
Pixar’s Elio has still been crumbling amid the chaos being revealed to the public about transitioning the character into a more “masculine” figure, and reports of heavy drama behind the scenes with a new crew and director. The very fact that it’s still crawling towards $100 million globally, instead of leapfrogging past it like many other Pixar entries, speaks to how much damage this once prestigious IP suffered when the folks at Disney started tossing everything onto PVOD.
M3GAN 2.0 has paid for its audacity by yielding “only” over $30 million worldwide; for all the goodwill to make it an action blockbuster instead of hinging on its horror roots, it’s a blow to Blumhouse and puts it in the same boat as Pixar, DC, and Marvel for one-too-many topics tossed onto streaming. 28 Years Later has passed $125 million worldwide, while Lilo & Stitch is crawling towards $1 billion worldwide.
M: I – The Final Reckoning is pushing towards $590 million globally, and Materialists will wrap up under $50 million globally.
Next weekend sees the release of Superman, Skillhouse, and Sovereign. Madea’s Destination Wedding will be available on Netflix.
