The excitement surrounding the upcoming film Jurassic World Rebirth is palpable as it gears up for a theatrical release right in the middle of the Fourth of July holiday. Fans of the franchise are eager to see how this installment will measure up against its predecessors, particularly given its historical performance at the box office.
Initial tracking suggests that the film could rake in between $120 million to $125 million over the five-day holiday weekend, starting on July 2. However, Universal Pictures and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin entertainment have tempered expectations, noting that actual earnings could fall to as low as $90 million to $100 million.
Historically, the Jurassic franchise has set high benchmarks. The original 2015 film, Jurassic World, shattered records with a jaw-dropping opening of $208.8 million domestically. Following it were Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Jurassic World Dominion, which opened with $148 million and $145 million, respectively. These films benefitted from starring names like Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, while Dominion creatively leveraged nostalgia by featuring original stars Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Sam Neill from Spielberg’s iconic Jurassic Park, which debuted in 1993.
Titled Rebirth, the new film picks up five years after the events of Dominion and introduces an entirely new ensemble cast, including notable actors like Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey. Other actors in the mix include Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, and Ed Skrein, expanding the diversity of characters in the saga.
Directed by Gareth Edwards, Rebirth hinges on a script penned by David Koepp, who also contributed to the original Jurassic Park and its 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Industry insiders have reported that this installment has a more modest budget of around $180 million before marketing, which is significantly less than its recent predecessors.
In the narrative of Jurassic World Rebirth, a limited number of dinosaurs are confined to specialized biospheres, with three particular creatures holding the key to a potentially life-saving drug. The story follows covert operations expert Zora Bennett, played by Johansson, who ventures to secure genetic material from these dinosaurs. However, her mission takes an unexpected turn when she finds herself stranded alongside a civilian family on an enigmatic island, shrouded in secrets kept from humanity for decades.
