Jurassic World Rebirth is shaping up to be a bigger box office draw than anticipated. The sequel is exceeding initial projections and has already broken one record during its theatrical run. According to Deadline, Rebirth grossed $26.3 million domestically on Friday, July 4th. That is the biggest haul for a film on Independence Day in the post-pandemic era, beating out the $20.3 million posted by Despicable Me 4 last summer. Currently, Jurassic World Rebirth is estimated to gross $141.2 million domestically over the extended five-day holiday weekend, which would be the highest Fourth of July debut of all time. In 2022, Minions: The Rise of Gru opened with $123 million over the long holiday frame.
Gareth Edwards’ film is off to a strong start at the global box office as well. Rebirth is poised to earn $312.5 million worldwide in its first weekend. That figure would be higher than the worldwide debut of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($298.9 million), but still lower than the first Jurassic World (which made $525.5 million back in the summer of 2015).
Jurassic World Rebirth was always projected to have a shot at breaking the Fourth of July record, but the first wave of weekend estimates were much lower. Heading into its premiere, the film was pegged to earn somewhere between $120-130 million domestically and $260 million worldwide in its debut. Despite those hefty figures, Rebirth was clearly going to have the lowest opening of the four Jurassic World movies. It made $30.5 million domestically in its first day, a new low for the Jurassic World series.
Though Rebirth didn’t get an assist from the reviews (the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score stands at 51%), audience word of mouth appears to be on its side. The film has earned a fresh 73% mark on Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcorn Meter, indicating moviegoers are enjoying humanity’s latest misadventure with dinosaurs.
Even with the latest, improved estimates, there’s still some nuance to consider when discussing Jurassic World Rebirth‘s performance. On one hand, it’s great that it was able to exceed the initial projections, putting it in even greater position to quickly turn a profit. Considering some of the heavy hitters still to come this July, it was imperative that Rebirth get off to a strong start. However, the fact remains it is still estimated to have the lowest opening of the Jurassic World movies, slightly below Jurassic World Dominion‘s $145 million debut. Unlike Rebirth, the first three Jurassic World movies all opened over traditional three-day weekends. Since Rebirth has a reported $180 million production budget, it’ll go down as profitable, but there’s still an argument to be made that the series is losing some of its luster if it can’t surpass its predecessors over a five-day holiday weekend.
Time will tell if Jurassic World Rebirth will have strong enough legs to cross the $1 billion mark (a figure the previous three installments cleared). Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps will likely take away some business from Jurassic World, which could impact how well it holds over the rest of the month. It’ll also be interesting to see if Universal deems Rebirth a strong enough success to warrant another sequel. Odds are, the studio will. Even if Rebirth ends up as the lowest-grossing Jurassic World movie, it isn’t going to bomb, and releasing a follow-up over a normal weekend (when there aren’t holiday distractions) could lead to higher numbers in a debut.
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