Taking in $150 million, ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ became Universal’s second best opening weekend ever, fittingly trailing behind the first ‘Jurassic World’ but besting ‘Furious 7’. Considering that the first ‘Jurassic World’ came with 15 years worth of pent-up excitement, no one expected ‘Fallen Kingdom’ to match that, but this opening is better than lower-end predictions which placed it as low as $135M. Perhaps because it draws such a diverse audience– people of all ages, genders, etc.– the ‘Jurassic’ flicks hold up better over time than other franchises like ‘Star Wars’, so expect it to reign for at least another weekend. Also unlike ‘Star Wars’, audiences aren’t daunted by a deep mythology or heroic journey. It’s just dinosaurs eating people.
And as long as these movies deliver that, audiences will continue to be entertained. They are giving ‘Fallen Kingdom’ a thumbs up. Via PostTrak, they awarded it four out of five stars and 82% positive, while those polled by CinemaScore give it an “A-.” This is just slightly under the solid “A” that ‘Jurassic World’ earned. Predictably, critics weren’t impressed with this summer popcorn flick and it carries a weak 50% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Universal was a little worried that ‘Fallen Kingdom’ might not open as strongly in the U.S., so they rolled it out to international markets first. (It was also released early in some markets to avoid conflict with the World Cup.) It has already made over $200M in China alone and this is just its second weekend there. That brings its overseas tally to $561.5M and with the U.S. added in, its worldwide total is $711.5M.
Its weekend haul in China was $32.4M, making it the #1 movie again, besting ‘The Incredibles 2’ which premiered this weekend. But even though it came in second, with $21.2M, ‘The Incredibles 2’ is the biggest Pixar opening in that nation ever. It was also the #1 Pixar opening ever in Saudia Arabia.
One last note about China, beginning in July, the nation will enforce its regular summer blackout period, during which time no new foreign movies will be allowed to open, in order to give a boost to the Chinese film industry. So ‘Fallen Kingdom’ and ‘The Incredibles 2’ slipped in just under the wire and will continue to play after the embargo goes into effect.
Here in the US, ‘The Incredibles 2’ made an additional $80.9M, bringing its total to $350.2M. It did not hold up as well week-over-week as ‘Finding Dory’ but that is largely attributed to the fact that ‘Fallen Kingdom’ has a big family/kids following, so it’s stealing a bit of ‘The Incredibles” audience.
Here is the Top Five”
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Universal) – $150M
- The Incredibles 2 (Disney) – $80.9M
- Ocean’s 8 (Warner Brothers/Village Roadshow) – $11.65M
- Tag (New Line/Warner Brothers) – $8.2M
- Deadpool 2 (20th Century Fox) – $5.25M
Internationally, ‘Deadpool 2’ has now crossed the $400M mark.
This is the first time two movies have opened with more than $100M on back to back non-holiday weekends. And some are anticipating that ‘Fallen Kingdom’ may be the last movie of the summer to open to over $100M. Nothing arriving next weekend– ‘Sicario 2: Soldado’, ‘Uncle Drew’, ‘Leave No Trace’– will come anywhere close.
After that, we’ll see ‘The First Purge’ and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ on July 6. ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ is predicted to open to $75M but things could change over two weeks. The earliest reactions to the film have started to appear online and are glowing, with some calling it the funniest Marvel film yet. It’s got a great 85% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes, and it comes on the heels of two record-breakers ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Infinity War’. But Ant-Man wasn’t in ‘Infinity War’, so it’s unclear if fans will consider this as a must-see or if it has anything to do with the larger Marvel narrative. (Although rumors say that the Quantum Realm will play a major role in ‘Avengers 4’, so this could be more essential than most realize.)
The rest of the summer is peppered with a few other could-be hits like ‘Skyscraper’ (with Dwayne Johnson), ‘Hotel Transylvania 3’, ‘The Nun’, ‘Mama Mia! Here We Go Again’, ‘The Equalizer 2’, ‘Mile 22′ (starring Mark Wahlberg), Mission: Impossible – Fallout’, ‘Teen Titans GO! To the Movies’, ‘Christopher Robin’, ‘The Meg’, and ‘The Happytime Murders’. But the critics may be right. It’s entirely possible that we’ve now seen the biggest movies of the year until winter rolls around.
Are there any upcoming movies that you are most looking forward to?
Source: Deadline
