Box Office Estimates: ‘Incredibles 2’ Devoured By ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.’

As predicted by the Inquisitr, it so appears Disney and Pixar’s Incredibles 2 is being chewed up by Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Incredibles 2 is far from a financial disappointment, as it is on track to easily clear $300 million today and take plenty more over the weekend, as estimated by Box Office Mojo. Last Friday, the film opened to a $71 million take, which far exceeds Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s estimated opening night gross of approximately $58 million yesterday.

Forbes described the Incredibles 2 performance as a “plunge,” as it has dropped off by 66 percent since last Friday. Comparatively speaking, Disney and Pixar’s Finding Dory only dropped 57 percent from its opening day to the following Friday.

But before doing something crazy, like calling Incredibles 2 a box office disappointment, which it certainly isn’t, it’s important to consider that the Jurassic Park/Jurassic World franchise is more than just a formidable opponent for Pixar.

Jurassic World (2015) had an opening day of $85 million, and has the sixth highest domestic box office gross of all time, ahead of even Marvel’s The Avengers. Jurassic World had mostly positive reviews from critics as well, and rode into theaters on the legacy of 1993’s Jurassic Park, which upon its release, also thrashed at the box office. Jurassic Park spawned two sequels, as well as a line of successful toys. Jurassic Park is still the 17th highest grossing film of all time, with adjusted domestic box office totals.

Incredibles 2 opened one week ahead of a direct followup to the box office heavyweight not even Marvel can compete with, known as Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,

By comparison, Finding Dory opened in 2016, one week prior to a significantly lower box office performer, Independence Day: Resurgence.

Independence Day: Resurgence was a sequel to 1996’s Independence Day, the 41st highest grossing adjusted domestic box office movie. Independence Day: Resurgence, upon release, had zero recent, critically praised, financially unprecedented prequels. The Independence Day franchise, at the time of Finding Dory‘s release, wasn’t even really a franchise, Independence Day had been lying dormant for 20 years as a one-off movie. The 2016 sequel opened with a $16 million Friday and took in a domestic box office total of about $103 million.

Opening weekend numbers of The Incredibles 2, as it competed against a contemporary box office giant like something in the Jurassic World franchise, being compared to Finding Dory taking on a movie like Independence Day: Resurgence, which doesn’t even place in the top 300 all time grosses, is not exactly apples to apples.

In any case, Pixar’s Incredibles 2 and Finding Dory are both box office record holders, as is Jurassic World, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom will likely follow suit.

But one place where both Incredibles 2 and Finding Dory have the Jurassic World entries licked, is their critical success. Jurassic World‘s 70 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, while completely acceptable for a blockbuster and probably even cute in the eyes of Pixar’s writers, has nothing on both critical scores of the aforementioned Pixar titles.

Finding Dory and Incredibles 2 currently hold a 94 percent, indicating a nearly-universal appreciation for the film. And that’s not even close to as high as a Pixar movie has been rated. Toy Story and its sequel, Toy Story 2, both hold 100 percent ratings, while recent Pixar hit Coco touts a 97 percent, and UP! claims a 98 percent.

While box office numbers take a freeze-frame shot of the here and now, a film’s legacy and longevity is often determined by how it performs critically, and with audiences. With more Oscars and other prestigious awards than can be counted, Pixar is clearly playing the long game.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has opened to a critical score of only 50 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and has only a 62 percent with audiences. While it may not hurt opening weekend, it’ll wreak havoc on grosses beyond, and likely result in trepidatious audiences for the inevitable third entry in the Jurassic World franchise.

Jurassic World 3 may want to avoid opening anywhere near a Pixar movie