'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' Has a Big Weekend
by EG
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom had one of the biggest opening weekends of the year so far, but its box-office take was far below that of the first Jurassic World film. Meanwhile, the sequel to The Incredibles continued to fare very well at the box office. Read on for details.
Universal and Amblin's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom did notably better than expected in its U.S. debut with $150 million, but still didn't roar as loudly as its predecessor. Globally, the dinos have already grossed more than $700 million, putting the summer tentpole on course to join the billion-dollar club.
The sequel easily won the weekend ahead of Disney and Pixar's Incredibles 2, which earned $81.9 million to boast the biggest second weekend ever for an animated film and one of the largest for any film. Incredibles 2 finished Sunday with a mighty 10-day cume of $350.3 million and an early worldwide tally of $485 million after earning another $56.8 million overseas from its first 28 markets.
There's no doubt that Universal and Steven Spielberg's Amblin are relieved that the dinos — who are fiercer and more varied than ever in the fifth installment of the franchise — fended off medicore reviews and won over males and families, in particular. Heading into the weekend, tracking suggested Jurassic World 2 would open to $130 million.
The sequel cost at least $170 million to make before marketing. Overseas — where Fallen Kingdom opened three weekends ago — the film took in another $106.7 million from 68 markets for a foreign total of $561.5 million and $711.5 million globally. That includes $202.6 million from China alone. Imax theaters turned in $19 million over the weekend, including $13 million domestically.
In North America, Jurassic World 2 came in 28 percent behind the first pic, which bowed to a then-record $208.8 million in June 2015. Jurassic World — benefiting from pent-up demand for a franchise that had long been absent from the big screen — scored the biggest domestic debut of all time when it was released, a record it held until Star Wars: Force Awakens launched to $248 million six months later.
The 2015 film marked Universal's best opening in history, not adjusted for inflation, while Jurassic World 2 is its second-best. The follow-up also scored the fourth-biggest opening of the year to date behind Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther and Incredibles 2, which debuted to a record-shattering $182.7 million last weekend.
Incredibles 2 fell roughly 56 percent in its sophomore outing, one of the larger declines for a Pixar offering, although the bigger a film opens, the more it can fall. Also, Jurassic World 2 posed competition on the family front. Overseas, Incredibles 2 opened to $21.2 million in China, the top launch of all time for a Pixar title.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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