Universal’s “Jurassic World Dominion” has posted a $143.3 million opening from 4,676 theaters, the strongest box office since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
That result is third behind only “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” on the list of the top COVID-era domestic openings and is also just a few million short of the $148 million opening of “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” in 2018.
Combined with $177 million grossed from 72 overseas markets, “Jurassic World: Dominion” has grossed $320 million worldwide this weekend and $389 million to date, putting it well on track to join the other “Jurassic World” films on the list of $1 billion globa-grossers.
The blockbuster will get there despite negative reviews with a 30% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience, largely driven by moviegoers under 35, gave the film an A- on CinemaScore and a 79% Rotten Tomatoes audience score. Even with Pixar’s “Lightyear” likely to peel off general audiences in addition to families, the audience word-of-mouth and sheer spectacle of “Jurassic World” should allow it to leg out.
Overseas, “Dominion” got a boost from the $52.5 million opening earned in China. Though that is less than half of the $111 million opening that “Fallen Kingdom” earned in China, this result is a win for both Universal and Chinese theaters at a time when few Hollywood blockbusters have gotten a release in the country and exhibitors are coming out of another dry spell fueled by COVID-19 outbreaks. While theaters are reopening and capacity restrictions are loosening in many regions, roughly 20% of cinemas are still closed in China, including all locations in Shanghai.
Other leading overseas results for “Dominion” include $15.4 million from the U.K. and Ireland — fifth highest ever for Universal — $9.7 million in France, $8.5 million in Australia and $7.5 million in Germany. India, Malaysia and Spain all also saw openings of over $5 million.
While the dinosaurs ruled the box office, Paramount/Skydance’s “Top Gun: Maverick” is still performing excellently in its third weekend with a $50 million total. Despite losing premium format support to “Jurassic,” Tom Cruise’s most successful blockbuster ever only fell 44% from its $86 million second weekend.
With $393 million grossed domestically, “Maverick” will pass the North American total of “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” this coming week and join “Titanic” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” as only the third Paramount release to gross over $400 million domestically.
“Doctor Strange 2” will also pass the $400 million mark this week after adding $5 million in its sixth weekend for a total of $397.8 million domestic and $930 million worldwide. 20th Century’s “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” is in fourth on the charts with $2.3 million and $27 million grossed after three weekends, with Universal/DreamWorks’ “The Bad Guys” completing the Top 5 with $2.2 million and $91.5 million grossed after eight weekends.