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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Passes $1 Billion Worldwide
Dino-sequel Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has become the 35th movie in history to cross the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. The previous movie in the thunderous Universal franchise, 2015's Jurassic World, also belongs to the exclusive "Billion Dollar Club" with total receipts of $1.67 billion. The original 1993 Jurassic Park also just topped the magical $1 billion threshold globally with $1.02 billion (at a time when the idea of a billion-dollar global hit was still almost unheard-of).
Set several years after dinosaurs destroyed the lavish Jurassic World theme park, Fallen Kingdom picks up the action as Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) battle to rescue dinosaurs trapped on a volcanic island that's about to explode. Director J.A. Bayona took over for the sequel from Jurassic World helmer Colin Trevorrow, who co-wrote the script and remained on-board as executive producer (and vocal defender of the franchise). Thus far, the film carries a low 51 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the audience score holding at a not-much-better 57 percent.
Despite critical derision and some apparent fan apathy, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has proven to be a box office bonanza for Universal. As reported by Variety, the film has now reached a major milestone, officially crossing the $1 billion mark worldwide. Of that tally, $304 million comes from North America, with another $700 million from overseas markets. Fallen Kingdom's strong domestic total comes despite a precipitous drop-off in ticket sales from its big opening weekend to its second week.
Among all global markets, China has been the most lucrative for Fallen Kingdom, with over $230 million grossed in its first three weeks there. Fallen Kingdom is now the 5th highest grossing film of the year in China and the 2nd highest grosser among foreign titles, trailing only Disney's Avengers: Infinity War ($360 million). The first Jurassic World finished as the #6 movie of 2015 in China with $228 million of its overall $1.67 billion global total coming in that market. Clearly, China loves their dinosaurs.
With Fallen Kingdom now crossing the $1 billion threshold, Universal has seven movies in the Billion Dollar Club, with the three Jurassic films being joined by Furious 7, The Fate of the Furious, Minions and Despicable Me 3. In terms of franchises, the Jurassic films now stand 8th all-time with a total of $4.7 billion in grosses, one spot behind the Fast and Furious movies which have taken in $5.1 billion worldwide. And with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom getting a sequel, the franchise will have a chance to add many more hundreds of millions to its tally. Trevorrow will return to the director's chair for Jurassic World 3, which the filmmaker promises will take a "back to basics" approach to the material.
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) release date: Jun 22, 2018
- Jurassic World 3 (2021) release date: Jun 11, 2021
