Jurassic World: Dominion dethrones Top Gun with sizzling US$143m North American box office debut

Jurassic World: Dominion stomped all the way to the top of the North American box office charts last weekend, scoring a massive US$143 million to dethrone Top Gun: Maverick from its perch.

Despite blistering reviews, the sixth film in Universal’s dinosaur saga is primed for a long stay at the box office. It’s also only the third time in the pandemic era that ticket sales have collectively eclipsed the US$200 million mark, according to figures Comscore. That’s also thanks to the enduring popularity of Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick, which is still flying high in second place.

Even with the near-deafening roar of Jurassic World, Cruise’s beloved blockbuster stayed strong, adding US$50 million from 4,262 North American cinemas in its third weekend on the big screen. That’s a huge turnout for any film at this point in its theatrical run, but it’s even more impressive to pull in those numbers at a time in which Dominion is also packing a major punch at the box office.

By comparison, Spider-Man: No Way Home grossed US$56 million in its third weekend of release, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness drummed up US$32 million at the same stage, while The Batman picked up US$36 million. With US$50 million between last Friday and Sunday (a 44 per cent decline from the Jun 3-5 weekend), Top Gun: Maverick has generated a staggering US$393.3 million to date.

For Dominion, its initial box office returns represent a slight decline in popularity, although the big-budget tentpole is still raking in huge 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 rebooted the popular Jurassic Park trilogy in 2015, opened to a gargantuan US$208 million and ended its theatrical run with US$653 million in North America and US$1.6 billion globally.

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Its sequel, 2018’s Fallen Kingdom, debuted to a softer-but-still-spectacular US$150 million and tapped out with US$417 million domestically and US$1.3 billion worldwide.

“This is an excellent opening,” said David Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Reviews are weak, but that has never stopped these beasts.” REUTERS