SUNDAY AM UPDATE: Refresh for chart and more analysis Nothing is killing, or tripping Universal/Amblin’s Jurassic World Dominion, which saw its Saturday business jump to $46.7M compared to Friday’s actual gross less $18M previews of $41.7M, a 12% climb. This puts the Colin Trevorrow directed, written and executive produced sequel on a course for a $143.37M opening, off 3% from the last film, Fallen Kingdom.

As previously mentioned, Dominion has posted the best stateside debut for a non-superhero movie during the pandemic, besting the $126.7M 3-day previously posted by Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick, which held up tremendously against the dinos in its third weekend with $50M, -44%, and a running total of $393.3M.

The worldwide weekend is $319M, for a global running total of $389M, which includes offshore holdovers.

Seriously, that’s an amazing result. I thought that the bad reviews and prickly PostTrak would collapse this pic’s opening far below the $125M that the studio was projecting. Says one rival studio executive this morning, “Never underestimate the power of dinosaurs.” That and Universal’s marketing machine across all Comcast tentacles. One industry source argued to me over the weekend that Uni didn’t do enough to promote this movie; that there should’ve been more dinosaurs everywhere. I disagreed. I think Uni was everywhere with this movie for a long time, and that if it faltered this weekend, then that would’ve boiled down to the pic being the weakest of the bunch and word of mouth. We’ll see what next weekend brings, but the last movie, which was perceived as a down point reception wise from the 2015 film, saw a 60% decline in weekend 2, and a 2.8x leg out factor from its opening to a final domestic of $417.7M.

Exclaimed Universal Domestic Distribution Boss this AM, “This incredible debut for Jurassic World Dominion is driven by not only the loyal fans of the original Jurassic trilogy beginning in 1993, but many new fans experiencing Jurassic for the first time as our casts united for an epic conclusion.  After a long journey from being the first Hollywood film to safely return to production during COVID, up through our global release dates, we’re thrilled for our filmmakers and talent who worked tirelessly on this movie, and for our great partners in exhibition benefitting from a tremendous start to their summer.”

In firing up the campaign for Dominion, the studio had access to one of the biggest launchpads in NBC’s broadcast of the Winter Olympics where they debuted a 2 minute spot featuring gold medalist Nathan Chen, 2x gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin and retiring 3x gold medalist Shaun White running into the dinosaurs in the wild. A very clever cross promotion.

But what else was a draw here? Having the original Jurassic Park trio Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neil altogether in another Jurassic movie after 29 years, is also a huge selling point.

Paramount+ Star Trek architect Alex Kurtzman once told us his rule of thumb for building out the Gene Roddenberry franchise: “Render onto Caesar what is Caesar’s, everybody from the older generation should be incorporated into the new generation, there should always be respect for both and yet it always has to forge new ground.” One could argue that same adage could apply here to making Jurassic a continual success for generations or for that matter any legacy franchise. And it’s what Uni did from the early onset in making Dominion: They tipped their hat to the old fans in having Dern, Goldblum and Neil back. As we pointed out yesterday, PostTrak exits showed that 43% of all moviegoers bought tickets because the sequel is part of a franchise they love, while 25% said the cast as a whole.

Dominion skewed more male at 56%, consistent with the previous sequels, with the majority being over 25 at 56% and the 18-34 moviegoing demo showing up at 46%. Dominion, while overperforming in the West Coast and in the South Central region, also overindexed in Latino and Hispanic markets such as Houston, San Antonio, Albuquerque and El Paso.

Imax, PLFs and all enhanced formats drove 35% of the weekend’s ticket sales. Imax’s 400 auditoriums claimed 8% of the gross. Interesting to note here as we barrel toward Avatar 2 in December that 3D screens repped 13% of Dominion‘s gross.

Uni spared no expense in getting the domestic opening to where it needs to be. And while studios tout the power of social media in their marketing, nothing drives people to theaters like good old fashioned TV. iSpot, which only shows a portion of what the studio shelled out on ads here, estimates that Universal shelled out $41M –an enormous number by iSpot measures– earning 1.46 billion impressions. The bulk of those impressions were seen across networks as NBC (28.6%), ABC (6.8%), Telemundo (5.1%), TNT (4.9%) and USA (4.4%) with pushes during The Masked Singer, SNL, Grey’s Anatomy, Atlanta and the series finales of This Is Us and Ellen, the NBA Semi and Conference Finals, the Billboard Music Awards, the Liga MX Futbol Final, America’s Got Talent and Law & Order: SVU. There were also co-branded Dominion spots from Progressive, Carl’s Jr, Kinder and Jeep.

The first Dominion trailer was released across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google and Hulu, followed by a 90-second Superbowl spot, introduced by the pic’s star Chris Pratt, which aired during the pre-game. That was the first time fans caught a glimpse of Dern, Goldblum and Neil. The result of these efforts? 265 million views worldwide. The second trailer dropped out of CinemaCon and clocked 200M views worldwide. The second trailer drop was supported by several media activations including a legacy featurette, an NBA co-branded spot and the launch of ticket sales.

 

 

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SATURDAY AM UPDATE: Now this is a box office feat to be applauded. The worst reviewed Jurassic movie of all time, Jurassic World Dominion, is topping all expectations with a $142.1M opening. That’s only 4% off the debut of the last movie, Fallen Kingdom, which opened to $148m.

More hooray: Dominion posted the second-best opening day for a Jurassic movie with $59.55M, behind 2015’s Jurassic World ($81.9M) and ahead of Fallen Kingdom‘s $58.5M first day. Again, that first day includes the $18M in previews.

Other records to scream about: Dominion is the best opening in the Covid era for a non-superhero title. EntTelligence reports that Dominion clocked 4.4M admissions in its opening day, with the Colin Trevorrow-directed and cowritten movie commanding close to 70% of the weekend’s stateside moviegoing audience to date.

Jurassic World Dominion’s international cume through Saturday is $135M from new territories and holdovers. The foreign weekend is estimated to gross $175M for a cume of $244M through Sunday, sending Dominion‘s running global cume to $386M, 19% ahead of our forecast.

Typically, threequels, which arguably this is in the latest Jurassic generation sequence, go down in their openings. In addition, audiences love this one enough with an A- CinemaScore, which is the same grade that 2018’s Jurassic: Fallen Kingdom received. Comscore/Screen Engine exits were harder at 3 1/2 stars and 73% and 57% definite recommend. (vs. Fallen Kingdom‘s 82%, four stars).  The under-12 crowd adores the movie more than the adults, at 92% positive and a 69% recommend.

Quite often in the Rotten Tomatoes era, a bad critical rating on the barometer can drag down box office results. So when we see a popcorn film besting that tarnish, it’s worthy to note. It used to be, in the early aughts, that bad reviews and popcorn films were mutually exclusive.

On PostTrak, 43% of the audience said they bought tickets to Dominion because it’s part of a franchise they love, while 31% cited the genre, 25% mentioned the cast as a whole, while 24% said they came because they heard it was good, while another 24% said they went with someone who wanted to see the movie.

A lot of ‘walk-up’ business, with 58% of Dominion tickets purchased same day vs. those who bought them a week ago at 14%, and 11% purchasing more than a week ago. The average ticket price for Dominion is $13.21, versus Top Gun 2‘s opening day of $12.96 and The Batman‘s $12.88. While EntTelligence says that business was spread out throughout the day, close to 60% watched Dominion after the primetime of 6PM. What’s interesting here is that typically during the pandemic, moviegoers have been getting to showtimes earlier versus later.

Dominion drew 54% guys, close to half from the moviegoing demo of 18-34. Those under 17 repped 15%. Diversity demos were 41% Caucasian, 25% Hispanic and Latino, 16% Black, and 15% Asian and 5% other. Imax and PLF are powering 36% of tickets sales to date. The West and the Southwest are the strongest territories. Fallen Kingdom was 56% under 25, Dominion is 41% currently, which means the core fanbase just got older.

A great win for Universal and exhibition overall here. Uni, despite serving movie theaters with 30 titles this year (that includes Focus Features) hasn’t exactly been on a hot streak gross wise with Ambulance, The 355, Downton Abbey – A New Era, Firestarter, however, Jurassic is a reminder that theystill got the IP goods. What to do now? Keep making Jurassic movies, but clearly make them better, which arguably Universal has been able to do with the Fast & Furious movies.

And as we heard heading into the weekend, the dinosaurs aren’t doing any damage to the jets, as Paramount/Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick is seeing a third weekend of $50M, -44% (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness eased -48% in its third weekend). By Sunday, Top Gun 2 at $393.3M will only be $4.5M from taking over Doctor Strange 2, that pic in its sixth weekend. Wow.

Thanks to Dominion, total ticket sales for all movies look to be coming in at $211.6M, 28% ahead of the same weekend in 2019 when Universal opened The Secret Life of Pets 2.

Vivek Athreya’s Ante Sundharaniki, tells the story of a Hindu Brahmin who falls for a Christian girl. He trains her to be a Brahmin to convince his parents, only for their plan to be revealed. The three-hour movie is booked in 109 markets, 350 theaters with OK results in Dallas, DC, San Francisco, Seattle and Austin; estimated weekend opening at $615K in the 11th spot.

1.) Jurassic World Dominion (Uni) 4,676 theaters, Fri $59.55M, 3-day $142.1M/Wk 1

2.) Top Gun: Maverick (Par) 4,262 (-489) theaters, Fri $14.1M (-44%), 3-day $50M (-44%), Total $393.3M/Wk 3

3.) Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Dis) 3,345 (-420) theaters, Fri $1.38M (-47%), 3-day $4.9M (-46%)/Total $397.8M/Wk 6

4.) Bob’s Burgers Movie (20th/Dis) 2,605 (-820) theaters, Fri $698K (-46%), 3-Day $2.29M (-50%), Total $27M/Wk 3

5.) The Bad Guys (Uni) 2,416 (-456) theaters, Fri $660K (-31%), 3-day $2.28M (-32%), Total $91.55M/Wk 8

6.) Downton Abbey- A New Era (Foc) 2,011 (-1,460) theaters, Fri $490K (-51%),  3-day $1.55M (-52%), Total $39.8/Wk 4

7.) Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24) 1,434 (0) theaters, Fri $359K (-37%), 3-day $1.24M (-39%), Total $63M/Wk 12

8.) Firestarter (Uni) 150 (-193) theaters, Fri $310K (+943%), 3-day $850K (+749%), Total $9.2M/Wk 5

9.) Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Par) 1,067 (-1,025) theaters Fri $190K (-57%), 3-day $700K (-59%), Total $189.8M/Wk 10

10.) The Lost City (Par) 353 (-458) theaters, Fri $180K (-55%), 3-day $655K (-53%), Total $105M/Wk 12

11.) Ante Sundharaniki (Ind) 350 theaters, Fri $213K, 3-day $615K/Wk 1

Notables:

Crimes of the Future (NEON) 773 theaters, Fri $110K (-79%), 3-day $354K (-68%)/Total: $1.98M/Wk 2

FRIDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: Jurassic World Dominion looks to be critic proof against all those bad reviews with a $55.5M opening day and projected $132.5M 3-day at 4,676 theaters. If that holds, it will be the third best start for Jurassic movie after Jurassic World ($208.8M) and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($148M). That first day includes those $18M in previews.

RelishMix says that the social media chatter “runs mixed-positive” with “a tone of urgency from Jurassic brand-fans who are dying to see the story of the reunion of lead cast members and the techno-VRF evolution of Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece. Critical hecklers think that the show has jumped the shark, as an odd social warning of how this incarnation will derail as an ‘over produced spectacle’ — which sounds exactly what fans are ready for.”

RelishMix adds, “Reactions suspect spin-off are in the works in other forms, maybe recasting, but that the brand is too large to kill-off. Reaction spots have also fully deconstructed the project over six months from the prologue spot that was dropped in November 2021 — and point out the story accuracy, believability and how in-accuracies are part of the fun with these films.”

The sequel’s social media reach “runs 23% stronger than the 2018 installment” says the social media analytics corp, across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and with TikTok, now at 784.8M.

Universal dropped three select videos on the Universal YouTube growing to 6.2M subs — but also on the Jurassic World YouTube channel with an additional 1.76 subs for the brand with a notable set of 41 videos, dropped since the five-minute prologue spot in November last year. Materials have fueled over 515 earned and owned videos including reviews, trailer-reposts, reactions and clip reels for the franchise driving 459.8M views and counting — compared to the last movie with 409M views. Many key performance indicators are indexing well with TikTok videos at 107.5M views plus 84.1M views on Facebook, 3.7M on Twitter and 2.6M views on Instagram. Furthermore, the Super Bowl spot triggered 86.8M views in the 24 hours following the game, just behind Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which had 92.1M views.

Social media champs in the pic’s cast include Chris Pratt with 55.5M overall on social media, as well as Bryce Dallas Howard (5.3M across FB, Twitter and Instagram) followed by Jeff Goldblum (4.1M), Laura Dern (1.2M) and Sam Neil (989K).

Meanwhile, Paramount/Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick isn’t getting trampled by the dinosaurs with a $14M third Friday, -44% from a week ago and a third weekend of $50M, -44%, at 4,262 for a running total of $393.6M.

Disney’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is third at 3,345 with a $5M sixth weekend, repping a 45% decline and running total of $398M.

Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s The Bad Guys is fourth with $700K today, -27% from a week ago, and an eighth weekend take of $2.4M, -28% for a running cume by EOD Sunday of $91.6M.

20th Century Studios/Disney’s The Bob’s Burgers Movie, booked at 2,605, is seeing $2M in its third weekend, a 50% decline, and a running total by Sunday of $26.75M.

FRIDAY AM UPDATE: Universal/Amblin’s Jurassic World Dominion earned $18M in previews, but that’s not just from 4PM showtimes yesterday, but also other stunt previews earlier this week. The Colin Trevorrow directed movie played at 4,150 theaters.

Again, the bulk of that preview figure was earned last night.

Jurassic World Dominion is suffering the worst reviews of the Jurassic franchise at 34%. Typically, the dinosaurs have been able to survive that at the box office, but we’ll see if that $125M opening projection can keep up. The previous installment, 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which also endured bad reviews at 47% Rotten, filed a $148M opening, down from the franchise high of the 2015 film’s $208.8M. We’ve come to learn that Dominion cost a net $185M before global marketing and distribution spend. Audience scores on the last two Jurassics defeated any naysay from the critics with Jurassic World earning an A, and Fallen Kingdom an A-.

2015’s Jurassic World earned $18.5M in previews that began at 7PM before generating an $81.95M opening day; however, that was spurred by fans appetite for the first Jurassic movie in 14 years. Fallen Kingdom, after Thursday 7pm previews at 3,600 theaters, did $15.3M before earning a $58.5M first day.

Industry analysts believe that Jurassic World Dominion won’t bite into Top Gun: Maverick‘s third weekend hold, which is expected to be between $45M-$50M. Essentially, the latter is more older-skewing, while Dominion looks to gobble up families.

The sixth Jurassic movie expands to 4,676 theaters today, including 3D, IMAX and other premium large format screens. Disney will absorb all of those format next weekend for Pixar’s Lightyear. 

Paramount/Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick saw its first single-digit gross day at the box office after a near two week streak of daily double digit grosses with an estimated $9.1M yesterday, -26% from Wednesday. Tom Cruise’s highest grossing movie at the domestic box office now stands at $343.3M. The pic currently stands as producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s second highest grossing film, and needs to fly past $423M to become a domestic record for him, thus beating 2006’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Second week take for Top Gun 2 was $137.7M.

We’ll have more updates for you as they come.