Jurassic World Set To Engulf The Box Office

One of the biggest movies of 2015 has finally arrived in the form of Jurassic World, which is likely going to break the record biggest June opening weekend in its first frame. The question on everyones mind is just how big this dino-centric film will be.


Jurassic Park was an enormous pop culture phenomenon back in 1993, generating $357 million in its initial release and capturing the imagination of moviegoers worldwide. Two sequels followed, both of which fell short of the first movie in terms of both quality and domestic gross, but thankfully, neither were truly bad enough to capsize the franchise like, say, Scary Movie 5 or Saw VI. Advertising for Jurassic World, as one might imagine, leans heavily on nostalgia for the first movie, with the sequels understandably getting no mention in any ads (is anyone in their right mind clamoring for ads banking on nostalgia for raptors hollering "Alan"?).

Though no human characters from past movies, sans Dr. Wu, return for Jurassic World, John Williams score, wondrous dinosaurs and even Richard Attenboroughs vocals pop up frequently in TV commercials. To boot, thrills and scares have also been on prominent display, especially in more recent ads, and Chris Pratt is understandably at the forefront of most marketing materials thanks to him coming off of last years gargantuan box office success Guardians of The Galaxy.

Toss in solid early buzz from critics and Jurassic World looks to be set to be easily one of the higher grossing movies of the summer. It won't come close to the opening of Avengers: Age of Ultron or even Aprils Furious 7, but it has a good shot at clearing Man of Steels opening weekend of $116 million to claim the biggest June opening weekend of all-time. I'm not sure exactly how much higher than that it can go, but I'll say it clears $120 million. That's the kind of cash that would even make the skeptical Ian Malcom smile!

There are two other movies and their box office performance to talk about briefly before this edition of Box Office Predictions concludes. First up, Spy, last weekends victor, will likely hold decently in its second weekend. It won't hold as well as Melissa McCarthys last June comedy, The Heat, but that's mainly because Jurassic World entering the marketplace is a formidable foe to face. I say this well reviewed comedy will dip somewhere between 40 and 45% for the frame. Meanwhile, indie film Me, Earl & The Dying Girl opens this weekend riding a wave of tremendously positive buzz. Fox Searchlight is positioning this one smartly to likely go into wide release over the lucrative 4th of July frame, and even before that, it should rake up great numbers in its debut in limited release this weekend.

Below is my opening weekend and final gross prediction for Jurassic World as well as my projections for this weekends box office top 5.

Jurassic World
Opening Weekend: $123 million
Total Gross: $300 million

1) Jurassic World: $123 million
2) Spy: $16.2 million
3) San Andreas: $12.2 million
4) Insidious: Chapter 3: $8.7 million
5) Pitch Perfect 2: $4.4 million