‘Jurassic World’ Crushes Box Office For Second Week In A Row, Already Closing In On $1 Billion

Jurassic World, the fourth installment of the epic dinosaur film franchise, owned the box office again this weekend hauling in a massive $102 million in domestic receipts, making it the second biggest second week box office haul in history behind The Avengers, reports Saba Hamedy of the L.A. Times.

Jurassic’s monumental total brings its worldwide total haul to $981.3 million, meaning that Jurassic World has nearly eclipsed $1 billion in box office totals in only two weeks of release.

Jurassic World, which stars Guardians of the Galaxy and Parks and 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.

Perhaps even more impressive is the fact that Jurassic World made box office history this weekend in a different manner; as CNNMoney‘s Frank Pallotta points out, Jurassic World became the first film to keep Pixar from debuting in the top spot, as Pixar’s Inside Out, despite an impressive $91 million opening weekend take, became the first Pixar film since 1995 not to open to the number one spot.

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.

Pratt, who has already signed on to at least two more Guardians sequels with Marvel with the expectation of some inclusion in the Avengers mythology, has already signed on for at least one Jurassic sequel, though with this level of box office success and in a day and age where studios are always eyeing the almighty trilogy, it is far more likely that unless Pratt’s meteoric rise to Hollywood’s A-List predicates a parallel rise in his asking price, that Pratt will shepherd this second Jurassic trilogy as much of World’s success is being directly attributed to Pratt’s likability and star power.

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 did on 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.