Jurassic World Dominion topped the box office charts, grossing a whopping $143 million in its domestic box office debut.
Despite rave reviews, the sixth film in Universal's dinosaur saga has been raking in a stellar weekend at the domestic box office. According to comScore, this is only the third time since the pandemic that ticket sales have collectively crossed the $200 million mark. It's also thanks to the enduring popularity of Top Gun: Maverick, which is still soaring high in second place.
With the almost deafening roar of Jurassic World, Tom Cruise's beloved blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick remained strong, adding $50 million from 4,262 North American theaters in its third weekend in theaters. That's a pretty big turnout for any film at the moment, dramatically, but it's even more impressive to pull off those numbers, with Dominion also packing a huge punch at the box office.
By comparison, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” grossed $56 million in its third weekend, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” grossed $32 million in its third weekend, and “With Robert Pattinson” The Batman grossed $36 million. Its third weekend. Top Gun: Maverick has grossed an astonishing $393.3 million to date, with $50 million between Friday and Sunday (a 44% drop from last weekend).
For "Dominion," the initial box office return represented a slight drop in popularity, although the big-budget tentacle still raked in massive amounts of money. To be fair, the latest installment in the prehistoric series has some Triceratops-sized footprints to live up to at the box office. "Jurassic World," which relaunched the popular "Jurassic Park" trilogy in 2015, opened for $208 million and ended its theatrical run with $653 million in North America and $1.6 billion globally. Its sequel, 2018's "Fallen Kingdom," debuted at a softer-but-yet-fabulous $150 million and tapped in with $417 million domestically and $1.3 billion worldwide.
"It's a great start," says David A. Gross, who runs movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. "The reviews are weak, but that never deterred these animals."