Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Dinosaurs trample competition
NEW YORK — The dinosaurs still rule the box office. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom surpassed expectations to open with about $148 million in ticket sales in U.S. and Canadian theaters over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. While that total didn’t approach the record-breaking $209 million debut of 2015’s Jurassic World, it proved the 25-year-old franchise still roars loudly among moviegoers.
It also gave Hollywood its first back-to-back $100 million-plus openings in a nonholiday period. After opening with $182.7 million last week, Pixar’s acclaimed sequel Incredibles 2 slid 56 percent in its second week, with an $80.3 million haul.
The combined firepower of Fallen Kingdom and Incredibles 2 fueled about $228 million in total ticket sales, making it Hollywood’s fourthbiggest overall weekend ever, not accounting for inflation. Business was roughly double what it was the same June weekend last year, according to comScore.
“The normal course of box office is that the two films would cannibalize each other’s box office in some way,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. “This weekend proves that if you have two incredibly appealing movies in the marketplace at the same time, the marketplace will expand. The year-to-date box office jumped 2.5 percent in one weekend, from 6 percent to 8.5 percent.”
As with 2015’s Jurassic World, Fallen Kingdom was able to shrug off mediocre reviews — something that many other franchises have struggled to do lately. It sits at just 50 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes but received an A-minus CinemaScore from audiences.
“We’re seeing exit polls that indicate all quadrants came out to see this movie,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s distribution chief. “The majority of the audience was under 25. Obviously, we’re playing very broadly, and to families overall, and so thus the result at the very high end of our expectations.”
After notching the biggest opening ever for an animated release last weekend, Brad Bird’s Incredibles 2 held on strongly considering the family-film competition. Its global gross is now up to $485 million, including a $21.2 million debut in China, a Pixar best.
The female-fronted heist film Ocean’s 8, starring Sandra Bullock and Cate Blanchett, crossed $100 million domestically, with $11.5 million in its third week. Thanks to drivein double-features with Incredibles 2, Ava DuVernay’s A
Wrinkle in Time also cleared the $100 million milestone, a first for a black female director.
The Fred Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? became the summer’s second documentary to crack the top 10. Following the Ruth Bader Ginsberg documentary
RBG, Morgan Neville’s hit documentary on the man behind Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood grossed $1.8 million on 348 screens.
Sony Pictures Classics’
Boundaries, a father-daughter road trip starring Vera Farmiga, Christopher Plummer and Peter Fonda, made a muted debut with $29,000 from five theaters.