‘Jurassic World Dominion’ Roars With $18 Million Thursday

Universal’s Jurassic World Dominion earned a strong $18 million in Thursday preview grosses, just between the $15.3 million Thursday debut for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in 2018 and the $18.5 million preview gross for Jurassic World in 2015. Save for arguably the Batman films (the Burton/Schumacher franchise, the Nolan trilogy, etc.), Jurassic is one of the oldest ongoing franchises which is still “young” enough to have entirely existed in a time of regular advance night or midnight previews. As such, we can chart the evolution of the preview gross variable as a minor notion to a “whip out the calculators” factor. In this case, while Dominion earned more yesterday than did Fallen Kingdom, it’s still expected to open smaller over the whole weekend.

Jurassic Park earned $3.1 million on June 10, 1993 toward a record-busting $50 million opening weekend. I was there, with my dad at a 10:00 pm showing and (this was back when seeing a movie the night before meant you hadn’t even read any reviews) we had no idea just how good it would be. Anyway, The Lost World: Jurassic Park earned 2.5 million via Thursday night previews in May of 1997 for what would be a record-smashing $74 million Fri-Sun/$92 million Fri-Mon Memorial Day weekend. I cannot recall, and could not find, information related to preview grosses for Jurassic Park III in July of 2001, but the Joe Johnston-directed sequel earned $50 million over the Fri-Sun portion of its $80 million Wed-Sun debut.

Anyway, if Jurassic World: Dominion, which offers a conclusion to the so-called Jurassic Saga and mixes the Jurassic World cast (Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Isabella Sermon) with the original Jurassic Park trio (Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum), plays like Fallen Kingdom, it’ll open with a spectacular $174 million over its Fri-Sun weekend. However, fan-driven anticipation may skew the preview frontloading, as might lousy reviews (even if most of the Jurassic sequels have received mixed-negative critical consensuses) even if many of those pans still assure folks that you’ll get generational nostalgia, IMAX-worthy visuals and lots of action and dino mayhem. Like the Transformers series, audiences show up for Jurassic because the specific variables of this franchise can’t be found anywhere else.

Even if world-of-mouth hews closer to critical consensus, and frankly act three < act one, we’re still probably looking at a $130-$150 million debut. That would be a reasonable hold or slight uptick from Fallen Kingdom’s $148 million opening weekend. Critics and online pundits despair over the Jurassic World films as the nadir of modern blockbuster filmmaking (especially as Jurassic World opened just as Transformers had peaked), but audiences young and old show up and mostly have a good time. Jurassic World earned $652 million domestic and $1.671 billion worldwide, more than The Avengers. Fallen Kingdom earned $417 million domestic and $1.308 billion global, just shy of The Last Jedi ($1.333 billion) and Black Panther ($1.346 billion) with a lot less media hype.

Heck, if it plays like Jurassic World ($209 million/$18.5 million), it’ll top $200 million for the weekend. Even if Dominion drops as much from Fallen Kingdom as did Jurassic Park III ($181 million domestic and $384 million worldwide) from The Lost World ($229 million/$620 million), Universal’s $200 million Colin Trevorrow-directed tentpole would still earn around $330 million domestic and $810 million worldwide. It’s still a likely contender for the $1 billion-plus club but ask me on Sunday and then again next Sunday. It still pulled $18 million in previews, just below Top Gun: Maverick ($19.5 million counting earlier sneak previews toward a buzz-fueled $160.5 million Fri-Mon debut) and The Batman ($21 million toward a $134 million opening weekend). So far, life is, uh, finding a way.