Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom's Opening Weekend Higher Than Deadpool 2

[Black Panther]

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom won the box office this weekend, posting a debut that was higher than Deadpool 2 earlier this year. The sequel to 2015's Jurassic World was always expected to be a notable hit, as its predecessor broke commercial records en route to its $1.6 billion worldwide haul. Additionally, there's been a bit of a lull in regards to live-action tentpoles, after Solo: A Star Wars Story struggled to make much of an impact. You could say the demand for a blockbuster was quite high.

There was some question about just how high Fallen Kingdom would go heading into the weekend. Universal pitted it directly against Pixar's Incredibles 2, which itself was a record-breaking phenomenon only a week ago. Estimates pegged the latest Jurassic World for roughly $130 million during its first three days, but the actual results are a little higher than that.

According to Box Office Mojo, Fallen Kingdom earned an impressive $150 million over the weekend. That figure is considerably less than the $208.8 million the first Jurassic World made at its start, but still a great turnout. Fallen Kingdom now boasts the fourth-highest opening weekend of 2018, behind only Incredibles 2, Black Panther, and Avengers: Infinity War. Speaking of Incredibles 2, the animated film held very well to post $80.9 million in its second weekend. It's now up to $350.3 million domestically.

 

Unfortunately for Fallen Kingdom, it received less-favorable reviews than Jurassic World did a few years ago. That, combined with the short gap between installments (World came out 14 years after Jurassic Park 3), probably hurt the movie's commercial prospects a bit. That being said, Fallen Kingdom is without question a box office hit already. The film got a head start in several international markets before opening in North America, and its global total is currently a whopping $711.5 million. Since Fallen Kingdom sports a production budget of $170 million, it's already sailed past its break even point and has turned a profit for the studio. It'll be interesting to see if it can reach $1billion to, like the first World did.

All of this bodes well for the future of the franchise. Universal has already dated Jurassic World 3 for a 2021 release, under the watch of director Colin Trevorrow. People are clearly interested in having summer thrill-rides with dinosaurs and some are probably curious to see where the series goes from here after Fallen Kingdom's big ending. In the Golden Age of superhero cinema, Jurassic Park is one of the few non-comic book tentpoles to be a guaranteed lock, and Universal is going to ride it for as long as it can go.