The Jurassic Park franchise has some bite left in it after all. Jurassic World Dominion, the third installment in the Jurassic Park sequel trilogy, debuted with $59.5 million on Friday, including $18 million from Thursday previews, topping all expectations. Dominion was expected to make around $125 million in its first three days at the box office—a solid number, but significantly less than the previous two entries in the franchise. But now, it’s within touching distance of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s $148 million debut in 2018. If Dominion plays like Fallen Kingdom, its opening weekend haul can balloon to $152 million.
Dominion is going up against holdover hit Top Gun: Maverick, which is expected to come within touching distance of the $400 million mark domestically by the end of the weekend, making it the year's biggest hit domestically. But what’s more surprising is how critic-proof this movie seems to be. It’s by far the most poorly received of the three Jurassic World films, none of which have exactly been Best Picture contenders at the Oscars.
In fact, Dominion is currently the worst reviewed of all six films in the franchise, but funnily enough, opening day audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore. More notably, though, Dominion has registered the best three-day opening of the pandemic era for a non-superhero film. It even edged past even Maverick, which is one of the best-received blockbusters in years. And it isn’t just domestic audiences that are thronging theaters; by the end of the weekend, Dominion will have made around $244 million from overseas territories, taking its global haul to $386 million.
The first Jurassic World movie made $653 million domestically and $1.6 billion globally, and Fallen Kingdom grossed $417 million in the U.S. and $1.3 billion worldwide. Jurassic World also debuted to a then-record opening weekend haul of $208 million. Dominion has ground to cover, though; the film had a particularly nasty production during the pandemic, with numerous stops and starts inflating the budget to a huge $185 million.
Coming in at the second spot, Maverick had another soft drop in its third weekend of release, falling by 44% for an estimated $50 million after a $14.1 million Friday. This’ll take the film’s running domestic cume to $393 million, after a spectacular opening weekend, and a tremendous hold in weekend two. Globally, Maverick zoomed past the $700 million mark this week.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness claimed the number three spot, with $1.3 million on its sixth Friday. The superhero sequel is expected to make a little under $5 million this weekend, taking its running domestic total to just shy of the $400 million mark. The Bob's Burgers Movie took the fourth spot with around $700,000 on its third Friday, and is expected to hit a running domestic total of $27 million after a $2.29 million weekend. Universal's The Bad Guys rounded out the top five with a $660,000 Friday, and is expected to finish its eighth weekend with $2.28 million, taking its running domestic total to over $91 million. It's worth pointing out that the animated heist film has been available digitally for several days now.
Expect Dominion and Maverick to dominate the domestic box office for the next few weeks, at least until Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder guitar solos its way into theaters in July. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.