Universal Pictures is getting ready to bring fans back to theJurassicfranchise with the highly-anticipatedJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, a sequel to the 2015 blockbusterJurassic World. Its predecessor had a massive debut with $208.8 million, which broke the opening weekend record set byThe Avengers($207.4 million), but it seems its sequel won’t be setting any records this time around, if the newbox officetracking data is accurate. Early tracking numbers put the sequel’s opening weekend between $140 million and $150 million, which are certainly not weak numbers by any means, but still far below its predecessor.
The $208.8 million debut ofJurassic Worldin 2015 still stands as thefourth largest ever, behind last year’sStar Wars: The Last Jedi($220.8 million), 2015’sStar Wars: The Force Awakens($247.9 million) and last month’sAvengers: Infinity War($257.6 million). The tracking data also shows that unaided awareness, knowledge of the movie without being prompted in surveys, was at 27%, while total awareness is at 91% and definite interest is at 61%. While fans in the U.S. will have to wait until June 22 to see this in theaters, Universal will start the international rollout a bit earlier.
Universal’s international rollout ofJurassic World: Fallen Kingdombegins on June 6, when it will debut in major markets like the U.K., France, Germany, Indonesia, Iceland, South Korea, Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan. The next day on June 7 it will debut in 16 more international markets, including India, Hong Kong and Italy, 12 more on June 8 including Spain, South Africa and Norway, and perhaps the biggest market of all, China, on June 15. The movie will also open in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia on June 22, before it debuts in both North America and Mexico on June 22. The finalinternational marketsare Thailand on July 7 and Japan on July 22.
The originalJurassic Worldtook in $652.2 million domestically and $1.019 billion from foreign markets for a global haul of $1.671 billion, thefifth largest ever worldwide. It’s impressive international haul was lead by China, which dominated all other foreign markets with $228.7 million, followed by the U.K. with $99.6 million and Japan with $74.5 million. WithJurassic World: Fallen Kingdomeyeing a much lower debut than its predecessor, the studio is likely hoping for a huge foreign haul to offset this, but it remains to be seen how the fans and critics alike will respond to this tentpole sequel.
OriginalJurassic Worldstars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard return as Owen and Claire, along with newcomers such as Justice Smith, James Cromwell and Toby Jones, with Jeff Goldblum making hislong-awaited return to the franchiseas Ian Malcolm, who appeared in the original 1993 blockbusterJurassic Parkand its 1997 sequelThe Lost World, but not 2001’sJurassic Park IIIor 2015’sJurassic World. J.A. Bayona takes over the directing duties from original director Colin Trevorrow, who did return to co-write the script with Derek Connolly.Varietybroke the news on the box office projections forJurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.
