The dinos have a new lease on life.
Universal and Amblin’s Jurassic World Rebirth is coming in ahead of expectations at the Fourth of July box office to hatch a new era for the Steven Spielberg-created franchise. In North America, the holiday tentpole is on course to post an estimated five-day domestic opening of $141.2 million, including $85.4 million for the three-day weekend, according to Saturday’s estimates.
That’s the fifth-best showing ever for the holiday, while the three-day gross would mark the fourth-biggest domestic opening of 2025 to date. That’s no small feat considering July 4 fell on a Friday this year, meaning many moviegoers were distracted by holiday outings on what’s normally a critical day for new films. To boot, the latest Jurassic World pic has received decidedly mixed reviews from both critics and audiences alike. But there’s no dismissing the power of the Jurassic brand, or the spectacle of seeing dinosaurs come to life on the big screen.
Jurassic World Rebirth, the seventh title in the series, is roaring even louder overseas, where its estimated opening is $171.3 million.
That puts the film’s global start at $312.5 million — the second-best of the franchise, as well as the second-best opening of the year to date, behind A Minecraft Movie.
Heading into the holiday, the pic was eyeing a domestic opening in the $100 to $120 million range and $260 million globally. It opened on Wednesday, July 2, to get a jump on the long holiday weekend.
Following the conclusion of the Jurassic World trilogy directed by Colin Trevorrow, Spielberg, Amblin and Universal went back to the drawing board and enlisted filmmaker Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) to direct Rebirth from a script by original Jurassic Park screenwriter David Koepp.
The film features an all new cast anchored by Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey. The story follows an extraction team that races to an island research facility that factored into the original Jurassic Park (along the way, they discover a shipwrecked family). Now, the island is inhabited by the worst of the worst creatures that were left behind.
Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono and Audrina Miranda also star. Producers include longtime franchise stewards Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley, with Spielberg and Denis Stewart exec producing.
The first three Jurassic World pics all grossed north of $1 billion globally, and all opened higher than Rebirth domestically (comparisons are complicated by the fact that they were all there-day openings). At the same time, the latest film cost less to produce, or $180 million before marketing. In 2015, Jurassic World opened to a franchise-best $208.8 million, followed by $148 million for 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and $145 million for 2022’s Jurassic World: Dominion, not adjusted for inflation.
The first Jurassic Park, directed by Spielberg, opened to $47 million domestically in early June of 1993, not adjusted for inflation — a huge sum at the time.
Also setting off fireworks at the box office is Brad Pitt’s F1: The Movie, which is now in its second weekend after opening to $57 million domestically, a stellar number for a racing film about Formula One.
From Apple Original Films in partnership with Warner Bros., F1 is safely parked in second place domestically with an estimated $25 million to $26 million for the three days as it crosses the $100 million mark domestically (it has already cleared $200 million globally).
Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s live-action How to Train Your Dragon, Pixar and Disney’s Elio and Sony’s 28 Years Later are expected to round out the top five domestically. Blumhouse and Atomic Monster’s ill-fated M3GAN 2.0 could fall off as much as 68 percent in its second weekend to come in seventh behind Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.
Numbers will be updated Sunday morning.