How ‘Jurassic World’ Became Hollywood’s Most Underrated Blockbuster Series

To the surprise of nobody, the top movie over the weekend on the various VOD charts, including Vudu, was Jurassic World Dominion. As is customary for most Comcast releases, Jurassic World Dominion got a 31-day theatrical window since it opened above $50 million, as opposed to the 17-day window for other Universal/Focus Features releases. Slight digression, but Universal should play nice with Jordan Peele’s Nope and give it 31 days even if it opens with $49.999 million this weekend (it’s good pr). Since Jurassic World 3 opened with $145 million (right between Thor: Love and Thunder and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness among this year’s biggest debuts), it arrived on PVOD this Friday. Meanwhile, the film still earned another $4.95 million (-42%) in weekend six, bringing its domestic total to $360 million as it passed $900 million worldwide, cementing Jurassic World as Hollywood’s biggest stealth blockbuster franchise.

While the online world debates whether the MCU is doomed because Doctor Strange 2 only earned $955 million worldwide and Thor 4 might only gross about as much ($715 million) as Thor 3 did sans China and Russia, Universal and Amblin’s Jurassic World threequel will finish over/under The Batman ($370 million) domestically and over/under $935 million worldwide on a non-absurd budget ($185 million, even with massive Covid-era production expenditures). While its grosses in China ($150 million-and-counting) is low by Jurassic standards ($227 million in 2015 and $262 million in 2018), it’s still the third-biggest gross (behind Godzilla Vs. Kong and F9) for a Hollywood export since Hobbs & Shaw in August of 2019. The only reason it’s not a lock for the bronze medal this summer is because Universal and Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru ($262 million/$535 million and going strong) is hot on its ass.

I noted in 2020 that the Jurassic franchise was Hollywood’s most profitable (in terms of rate of return) live-action tentpole franchise. The five films had earned an average of $1 billion worldwide on an average budget of $123 million. As of now, presuming a $935 million global finish for Dominion, the six Jurassic movies have earned a combined $5.942 billion on a combined budget of $736 million. That’s an average gross of $990 million on an average budget of $123 million. Yes, the new normal in China caused the average to drop below $1 billion and caused the cume to end up below $6 billion. #CanThisFranchiseBeSaved? jokes aside, that’s still a gross versus budget rate-of-return of around 8.07x between 1993 (Jurassic Park, which earned a lifetime $1.045 billion gross on a $65 million budget) and 2022 (Dominion, which earned $935 million on a $185 million budget).

Critics carp and pundits whine about the logic of folks continuing to go back to dino island. Never mind that the sequels create valid reasons, and most of the events of the first three films are either top secret or urban legends/conspiracy theories). However, audiences like this franchise and show up. They liked Jurassic World. It opened bigger than The Avengers ($208 million versus $207 million) *and* had longer legs ($652 million versus $623 million) for a larger global gross ($1.671 billion versus $1.515 billion) while lording over Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.405 billion, which also led the pundits to proclaim Marvel’s approaching demise, natch). They liked Fallen Kingdom to the tune of $417 million domestic (more than Wonder Woman) and $1.308 billion worldwide (more overseas than The Last Jedi and Black Panther). Meanwhile, the Internet pretends not to understand why Hollywood keeps making Jurassic movies.

They are colorful, IMAX-worthy and kid-friendly adventures. They offer non-superpowered, blue-collar characters when most blockbusters feature superheroes or one-many-army action gods like Ethan Hunt, Dominic Toretto and John Wick. They have one key element not found in any other big tentpole franchise. I like Doctor Strange 2 just fine. While I prefer the “only Tom Cruise can save us” subtext to the text, I will admit that Top Gun: Maverick gets the job done. But neither film contains scenes of people being eaten by dinosaurs. Do you know what movie does? Hint: It’s not Elvis, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On or Where the Crawdads Sing, although I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a deleted scene from Everything, Everywhere All at Once where one of Michelle Yeoh’s variants fends off dinosaurs. In a superhero-saturated industry, Jurassic offers variables that audiences cannot get anywhere else (other than Carnosaur and The Velocipastor).

Audiences mostly like the films more than critics, although, back in my day, big-budget blockbusters about dinosaurs weren’t supposed to get rave reviews. Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World invented the self-loathing tentpole blockbuster. Its story, about the park being open for 20 years and audiences growing weary of its scientific miracles, was a meta-commentary on the need to keep refurbishing previously successful franchises and upping the ante in scale and chaos. This was before The Matrix Resurrections and Scream did likewise with a yellow highlighter. J.A. Bayona’s Fallen Kingdom blew up the island and turned the film into a macabre haunted house flick. Trevorrow’s Dominion is better when it’s not trying to explicitly be a Jurassic movie (as opposed to the second half where everyone ends up on a secluded island). Still, it offers huge-scaled action, a variety of locales, popular characters, dino carnage and a distinct conservationist point-of-view.

The Jurassic franchise earns top-tier box office despite not remotely dominating online discourse. The “fans” show up and enjoy the movies (including Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady) without obsessing about them online. Jurassic exists in a metaphorical vacuum of being a popular franchise whose films make lots of money in theaters (and, presumably, in post-theatrical) without dominating pop culture commentary/social media chatter. That they, and Universal’s Despicable Me/Minions franchise, tend to earn more than most Disney movies and most superhero films again shows how the overwhelming coverage afforded to geek-centric properties does not automatically represent general audience sentiment. However, if Comcast had to choose between ruling Twitter and SEO-driven media coverage or two $900 million grossers on a combined budget of $265 million via general audiences and non-obsessive fanbases, they’ll happily get rich in comparative obscurity. Can we finally get a version of John Sayles’ Jurassic Park 4 with battle dinos?