Weekend Box Office: Hold on to Your Butts

Breaking into record-setting territory, Steven Spielberg’s 22-year-old dino franchise is far from extinct.

Nobody saw this coming, not even Universal. Expected to open around the $100 million mark, ‘Jurassic World‘ proved to be a much bigger powerhouse than that. From 4,274 locations, the fourth installment in the franchise (which is the first in 14 years) reeled in $204.6 million, making it the second-highest opening of all time behind 2012’s ‘The Avengers’ ($207.4 million). And the success didn’t stop at North American borders.

Overseas, ‘Jurassic World’ grossed $307.2 million. It’s the second-highest international debut behind ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2’ ($314 million). Combined, ‘Jurassic World’ saw a worldwide debut of $511.8 million. This marks the first title to ever globally earn more than $500 million in a single weekend.

Despite the competition, Melissa McCarthy’s ‘Spy‘ continued to be successful as well. Its second weekend only declined 45% in attendance, which is quite strong for an R-rated comedy. The movie brought in another $16 million. After ten days, the genre spoof has made $56.9 million domestically, and $113.4 million globally.

While ‘Spy’ wasn’t crushed by the competition, ‘Jurassic World’ took a bite out of ‘San Andreas‘. The disaster flick’s third weekend took a 57% hit in attendance, but still managed to add another $11 million to its $119.3 million 17-day total. Worldwide, it has grossed $307.8 million.

Worse, ‘Insidious: Chapter 3‘ fell a brutal 68% in its second weekend. The PG-13 horror flick still managed to conjure up another $7.3 million. After ten days, it has earned $37.3 million, which isn’t too shabby for a $10 million movie with a tiny marketing campaign.

In its fifth weekend, ‘Pitch Perfect 2‘ rounded out the Top 5 and somehow only dropped 20% in attendance. An additional $6 million brings its domestic run up to $170.7 million.

Fox Searchlight’s award-winning Sundance acquisition ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl‘ had a great 15-screen debut. The $210,000 limited opening resulted in a $14,000 per-screen average. It shouldn’t be long before the brilliant indie teen dramedy expands.

Box Office totals have yet to be released for documentaries ‘Live From New York!’ or ‘The Wolfpack’.

Top 10:

1. ‘Jurassic World’ (Universal) – $204,600,000

2. ‘Spy’ (Fox) – $16,000,000

3. ‘San Andreas’ (Warner Bros.) – $11,010,000

4. ‘Insidious: Chapter 3’ (Focus) – $7,300,000

5. ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ (Universal) – $6,000,000

6. ‘Entourage’ (Warner Bros.) – $4,340,000

7. ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (Warner Bros.) – $4,130,000

8. ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ (Buena Vista) – $3,641,000

9. ‘Tomorrowland’ (Buena Vista) – $3,417,000

10. ‘Love & Mercy’ (Roadside) – $1,765,000

8 comments

  1. William Henley

    I wonder if the popularity of Jurassic World had to do with the fact that 1) Wildly successful movie 2) Target audience in 90s are now in the age range that have the most disposable income 3) Wasn’t a reboot but a sequel 4) There was 14 years since the last movie. I am willing to bet that if they rushed out a fifth movie, it wouldn’t do anywhere near as well.

    • NJScorpio

      I think that it cashes in on the technique of bringing back franchises 30 somethings remember fondly from their childhood, but did so with a far more mainstream picture than prior. Transformers, TMNT, GI Joe, all have limited appeal. Jurassic Park doesn’t feel like you are bringing your date to a “kids” movie.

  2. $511 million is really … wow, extreme. Not taking inflation into account (which I should do), it’s more than half of the total earnings of ‘Jurassic Park’. It’s $150 million more than the TOTAL (domestic and overseas) box office of ‘Jurassic Park III’.

    Again: the third movie took three (or more) months to gross less than this movie in ONE WEEKEND!!!

    How did ‘Jurassic World’ ever pull this off? How does a fourth film in a franchise gross this much (compare ‘Transformers 4’, but that came hot off the heels of the third installment) after such a long wait? Why do people that ignored the third one flock to this? Nostalgia? Better reviews?

    Wow, just wow. I can’t wrap my head around it: half the gross of ‘Jurassic Park’ in just three days!! It’s all China’s doing, I guess. 20% came from the land of Mao.

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