1 week Ago By Lisa Laman
Only three films have ever cracked $250+ million on their domestic opening weekend, and all of them belong to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Meanwhile, the only five films to open to $220+ million belong to either the MCU or Star Wars franchise. No title outside of those two sagas has opened higher than $210 million.
That reality ensured that A Minecraft Movie’s $162.75 million domestic opening was the seventh-biggest North American opening ever for a movie outside the Star Wars and Marvel Cinematic Universe tapestries.However, this fantasy adventure clearly doesn’t hold the record for the biggest domestic box office bow for a motion picture that doesn’t belong to those two titan Disney sagas.
That honor instead goes to a blockbuster smash that’s held this particular record for a whole decade. Jurassic World roared into theaters in June 2015 with monstrous buzz, profoundly pleased moviegoers, and a box office achievement that no non-Star Wars/MCU film has come close to passing.What Was Jurassic World ‘s Opening Box Office?Chris Pratt in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
While pre-release expectations had the sequel opening in the $135-145 million range, Jurassic World blew past all those expectations to gross $208.8 million in its first three days at the domestic box office. That’s $1.
4 million more than the May 2012 premiere of The Avengers, thus ensuring that Jurassic World had (at the time) the biggest North American opening weekend in history. It was a tremendous feat, solidifying how beloved the Jurassic Park saga had become over 22 years of existence. It also suggested that Disney didn’t have a monopoly on opening weekends above $200 million domestically.
Jurassic World was also a major win for Universal Pictures. By the mid-2010s, Universal had begun to leave behind its late 2000s/early 2010s doldrums that saw the studio experiencing one box office bomb after another like Green Zone, Your Highness, and Repo Men. Still, big-budget blockbusters had proven troublesome for the outfit in this decade thanks to costly mega-flops like Battleship and R.
I.P.D.
With Jurassic World, Universal finally got its groove back in the live-action blockbuster department that Disney and Warner Bros. had excelled in.Jurassic World has stood for ten years not only as Universal’s biggest movie ever domestically, but also the largest non-Star Wars/Marvel domestic opening in history.
The only qualifying films that’ve close to dethroning it are July 2019’s The Lion King, which opened to $191.77 million and June 2018’s Incredibles 2‘s $182.68 million.
So far in the 2020s, only A Minecraft Movie and Barbie have gotten the “closest” with their $162-163 million debuts. Dinosaurs clearly didn’t just rule the planet thousands of years ago. They’ve also reigned supreme over so much of the last decade of American blockbusters.
[RELATED: The First Jurassic Park Trailer Has No Footage From The Movie and It’s Still Amazing]How Did Jurassic World’s Box Office Affect The Jurassic Franchise?The greatest benefactor of the Jurassic World box office was, of course, the two subsequent Jurassic movies. While neither one came close to matching Jurassic World‘s opening weekend or lifetime domestic haul, they still proved sturdy moneymakers in their own terms. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World Dominion both secured $148 and $145 million opening weekends, respectively.
Those consistent debuts spoke to how well-received Jurassic World was by general audiences back in 2015.The must-see event movie of that summer moviegoing season kept inspiring people to give these fearsome dinos another shot. Unfortunately, in the last decade, Jurassic World wasn’t followed by a deluge of further non-MCU/Star Wars movies clearing $200+ million on their respective opening weekends.
These two Mouse House franchises dominated pop culture so thoroughly in the second half of the 2010s. Meanwhile, the 2020s have been disrupted by endless external problems like COVID-19, dual strikes, and studios shifting towards streaming originals.This perfect storm of events has offered few opportunities for features beyond the confines of the MCU and Star Wars to score opening weekends on par with Star Wars.
A Minecraft Movie reaching seventh place among such titles, though, is certainly an echo of Jurassic World’s tremendous success ten years earlier. So long as a movie resonates with the public, any title can become a domestic box office juggernaut on its opening weekend. Lightsabers and Infinity Stones are not a prerequisite for glorious North American opening weekends, just ask a bunch of hungry dinos.
Jurassic World is now streaming on Prime Video.The post Jurassic World Holds a Unique Record (That Even Minecraft Couldn’t Break) appeared first on ComicBook.com.
.
