‘Jurassic World’ Makes Box Office History: $511.8 Million Marks Biggest Opening Of All Time
Jurassic World, the long awaited fourth installment of the Jurassic Park franchise, blew away all expectations this weekend when it opened to the highest-grossing box office weekend debut of all time. It became the first film ever to eclipse $500 million in its opening weekend raking in an astounding $511.8 million worldwide, according to Devan Coggan of Entertainment Weekly.
Jurassic World, which stars Guardians of the Galaxy and Parks & Recreation star Chris Pratt, narrowly missed catching The Avengers for the top domestic box office opening of all time, pulling in $204.6 million stateside and falling just $3 million shy of Avengers, reports Greg Braxton of the L.A. Times.
Jurassic World opened to 4,273 screens, making it Universal Pictures’ widest release ever and topped Furious 7 as Universal’s biggest debut of all time. Jurassic World also broke IMAX records pulling in $20.6 million on IMAX screens, besting previous IMAX king The Dark Knight Rises.
In the film, Pratt stars as a dinosaur trainer who works for the Jurassic World theme park who, along with the park’s manager, is thrust into action attempting to stop a genetically engineered dinosaur that gets loose in the park before it kills innocent park-goers. The film takes place 22 years after the events in the original Jurassic Park film.
Vanity Fair‘s Melissa Locker reports that Pratt, already signed on to at least two more Guardians sequels with Marvel with the expectation of some inclusion in the Avengers mythology, told Entertainment Weekly that he has already signed on for at least one Jurassic sequel, and joked that there may be up to 38, joking, “They have me for I think 38 movies or something.”
All of this appears to be par for the course for the iconic Jurassic franchise. The first film in the series, Jurassic Park, set what was for the time, 1993, the biggest box office opening of all time becoming the first film ever to break $50 million its opening weekend.
Jurassic World was directed by Colin Trevorrow. Jurassic Park‘s director, screen legend Steven Spielberg, acted as an Executive Producer for the film as he had the franchise’s third installment, Jurassic Park III, via his production company Amblin Entertainment. Spielberg also directed the first sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Thus far, the Jurassic Park franchise has amassed over $2.4 billion at the box office alone, making it one of the most successful movie franchises in history.
[Image courtesy of Forbes]
