Jurassic World Rebirth’s Box Office Overtakes Steven Spielberg’s Acclaimed 90% Sci-Fi Movie In A Single Weekend

Following its opening weekend, Jurassic World Rebirth has overtaken the total gross of a Steven Spielberg sci-fi classic. Directed by Gareth Edwards, the latest installment in the Jurassic Park franchise stars Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett, the leader of an expedition into a dangerous equatorial region to recover dinosaur DNA for a medical breakthrough.

Johansson is joined in the Jurassic World Rebirth cast by Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, and Mahershala Ali, among others, and the film’s screenplay hails from original Jurassic Park writer David Koepp. After birthing the franchise with his seminal 1993 blockbuster, Spielberg serves as an executive producer on the new film.

According to new data from Box Office Mojo, Jurassic World Rebirth’s worldwide box office haul after its first full weekend in theaters stands at $318 million. This means the film has already surpassed Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1997), which has a worldwide gross of $306 million and a Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score of 90%.

Rebirth’s worldwide total after the five-day holiday weekend comprises $147 million domestically and $171 million internationally, while for Close Encounters, the lifetime gross figures stand at $135 million for the former and $171 million for the latter.

What This Means For Jurassic World Rebirth

How Much Does The Film Need To Break Even?

If Close Encounters’ total was adjusted for inflation, it would lead Rebirth by a fairly large margin, but box office figures tend to be presented as they were in the year of their collection. In any case, Rebirth is off to a strong start financially, and the film is already well on the way to recovering its estimated production budget of $180 million.

Using the standard Hollywood rule of thumb, Rebirth could be looking at a break-even point around $450 million, a figure it will undoubtedly hit in the weeks ahead. Whether it can reach the heights of its predecessors, however, is less clear.

The three previous Jurassic World movies were all able to top $1 billion at the box office, with the 2015 reboot leading the franchise at $1.670 billion worldwide. Jurassic World opened to $208 million domestically, beating Rebirth. It’s worth noting, too, that Rebirth’s $147 million figure actually includes the full five-day holiday weekend, which needs to be taken into account with any comparisons.

Jurassic World Rebirth reviews have been mixed from critics and somewhat lukewarm from audiences, and this could affect the film’s legs. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has only a 72% Popcornmeter score from audiences. That being said, Dominion has a mildly better 77% Popcornmeter score and was a massive success, so this may not be a strong indicator of future performance.

Our Take On Rebirth’s Latest Box Office Milestone

The Jurassic Franchise Shows Great Resiliency

If there’s one thing that the three previous Jurassic World movies make clear, it’s that audiences can’t get enough of the franchise’s dinosaur action. After the acclaimed Jurassic Park, almost every subsequent installment has struggled when it comes to critical reception, but the box office of each installment (save for the third film) is why new installments keep getting made.

Unless Rebirth suffers a catastrophic drop at the box office over the next few weeks, it seems likely to end up being a modest success at worst. Another sequel, then, is likely. Even if a Jurassic World Rebirth follow-up also struggles to recapture the magic of Spielberg’s original, though, this franchise won’t be going extinct anytime soon.

Source: Box Office Mojo