Jurassic World: Dominion has been a long time coming thanks to the Covid pandemic, and with first reviews giving a high approval rating but mixed reviews, it is hard to tell whether the wait has been worth it. Now opening weekend predictions have suggested the film will have the lowest box office haul when it opens this weekend, but that doesn’t mean the dinosaur-filled franchise finale will be anywhere near a flop.
The Jurassic Park/Jurassic World movies have always had a mixed reaction from critics, with the exception of 1993’s Jurassic Park, which many still see as a perfect blockbuster movie. Many of the sequels have mostly landed 50%-70% approval rates on Rotten Tomatoes, but as we know they have also done big business at the box office. It is therefore surprising, with a current 88% approval rate, only 4% short of Jurassic Park’s 92%, that Jurassic World: Dominion’s opening weekend is predicting a comparatively low $125 million domestically this weekend.
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To put this in perspective, Jurassic World opened in 2015 to $208 million, while the highly criticized Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom brought in $148 million a few years later. While the world of cinema is still seeing some movies struggle at the box office following the Covid pandemic, others such as Top Gun: Maverick have smashed expectations, so it is not certain which way Jurassic World: Dominion will go. The current predictions, though, are much lower that the estimated $205 million high-end figures projected last month.
Related: Jurassic World Dominion: A History of the Movie’s Delays and Why
Critic Reviews Mean Nothing Where The Jurassic Franchise is Concerned
While some movies live and die based on critic ratings, and others, such as Sony’s recent release of Morbius, can be damaged by disappointed first audiences, both the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchises have been immune to this in the past. When looking at the facts and figures of the franchise, it is hard to see how Jurassic World: Dominion can fail to capitalize on the world’s love of the monsters of the past.
Following Jurassic Park’s $1 billion haul in 1993, its sequels saw box office takings drop progressively, and Jurassic Park III took only $368 million, but still being a financial success even at that. When Jurassic World arrived 14 years later, the budget had more than doubled that of Jurassic Park, but the film shocked everyone when it took $1.6 billion and became one of the biggest movies of all time. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom saw another increase in budget, but again, despite just scraping over a 50% approval rating, the film pulled in $1.3 billion worldwide. With ratings currently riding high, could the final Jurassic World movie pull the dinosaur out of the hat once again?
When it comes down to it, fans of the franchise want one thing – so see dinosaurs come alive on screen and cause plenty of problems for their human counterparts. With Jurassic World: Dominion promising a lot more of that, with the prehistoric beasts causing havoc in a real-world setting, it is going to take a lot for the movie to not push towards the $1 billion once again.
Jurassic World: Dominion opens in cinemas worldwide this Friday.
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