'Jurassic World Dominion' scores sizzling $143 million debut

Film stomped to the top of box office charts, scoring a massive $143 million in its domestic box office debut.

LOS ANGELES:

Jurassic World Dominion stomped to the top of box office charts, scoring a massive $143 million in its domestic box office debut.

Despite blistering reviews, the sixth film in Universal's dinosaur saga is looming large over a sizzling weekend at the domestic box office. It's only the third time in the pandemic era that ticket sales have collectively eclipsed the $200 million mark, according to Comscore. That's also thanks to the enduring popularity of Top Gun: Maverick, which is still flying high in second place.

Even with the near-deafening roar of Jurassic World, Tom Cruise's beloved blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick stayed strong, adding $50 million from 4,262 North American cinemas in its third weekend in theaters. That's a huge turnout for any film at this point in its theatrical run, but it's even more impressive to pull in those numbers at a time in which Dominion is also packing a major punch at the box office.

By comparison, Spider-Man: No Way Home grossed $56 million in its third weekend, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness drummed up $32 million in its third weekend, and The Batman with Robert Pattinson collected $36 million in its third weekend. With $50 million between Friday and Sunday (a 44% decline from last weekend), Top Gun: Maverick has generated a staggering $393.3 million to date.

For Dominion, initial box office returns represent a slight decline in popularity, though the big-budget tentpole is still raking in huge amounts of money. To be fair, the latest installment in the prehistoric series has some Triceratops-sized footprints to live up to at the box office. Jurassic World, which rebooted the popular Jurassic Park trilogy in 2015, opened to a gargantuan $208 million and ended its theatrical run with $653 million in North America and $1.6 billion globally. Its sequel, 2018’s Fallen Kingdom, debuted to a softer-but-still-spectacular $150 million and tapped out with $417 million domestically and $1.3 billion worldwide.

“This is an excellent opening,” says David A Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Reviews are weak, but that has never stopped these beasts.”

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