“Jurassic World Rebirth,” the seventh installment in the long-running dinosaur franchise that refuses to go extinct, took a big bite out of the box office on Wednesday, earning $30.5 million.
The Universal release should dominate ticket sales during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, netting a projected $133 million over its first five days of release. That would be an impressive result. However, it would trail the grosses of more recent films in the series, suggesting interest is slackening in a franchise that is now comfortably in its fourth decade. For context, 2015’s “Jurassic World” earned a mighty $208 million in its opening weekend, while 2018’s “Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom” debuted to $148 million and 2022’s “Jurassic World Dominion” premiered to $145 million. Oh, and those films put up those bigger numbers during their first three days in theaters, not over a five-day holiday. “Jurassic World Rebirth” is expected to earn $80 million of its holiday gross over its opening weekend.
Critics were kinder to “Rebirth,” which finds Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali trying to avoid the jaws of some prehistoric beasts, than they were to “Dominion,” crediting the film with delivering more scares than its predecessor. Gareth Edwards, whose previous tentpole films include “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Godzilla,” directed the latest “Jurassic World,” with David Koepp, the writer of 1993’s “Jurassic Park,” handling screenplay duties. All that dino carnage doesn’t come cheap. Universal spent $180 million to makes “Rebirth,” plus tens of million more to market the adventure. That was less expensive than “Dominion,” which cost $250 million and change to produce. The hope for Universal is that “Jurassic World Rebirth” will draw a large enough crowd to justify another trilogy of films. The economizing should help with that effort, because the lower price tag means “Rebirth” won’t have to approach the $1 billion-plus grosses of other films in the series to be considered a success.
“Jurassic World Rebirth’s” biggest competition will come from Apple Originals Films’ “F1,” a $250 million racing drama that stars Brad Pitt and has been aimed at older crowds. The film is expected to earn $30 million to $35 million in its second weekend, down slightly from its $57 million debut. That’s still a fraction of what “Jurassic World Rebirth” will earn, but it’s worth remembering that with a $3 trillion market cap, Apple doesn’t face the same financial pressures of a traditional studio. Even a T-Rex is no match for the power of an iPhone.