Dinosaurs seemingly still rule the Earth as Jurassic World: Rebirth overcame poor reviews (and middling word of mouth) to rally to an impressive $91.5 million weekend—$11.5 million more than we predicted—with a five-day total of $147 million. While that five-day haul is about equal to what the last two films, Fallen Kingdom and Dominion, made in their three-day openings, Rebirth cost at least $100 million less to produce, so there’s no doubt everyone at Universal is celebrating a major win.
While that domestic total showed that there’s still teeth in the franchise, the global box office take, which came in at a whopping $318 million, sent the film’s star into the stratosphere with the likes of Harrison Ford, Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey Jr. In fact, The Wrap reports that Scarlett Johansson has now surpassed all of them to become Hollywood’s highest-grossing star. Jurassic World: Rebirth‘s six-day worldwide earnings put Johansson over the top with a lifetime career gross of $14.8 billion, which came courtesy of her Marvel appearances, namely the four Avengers movies and Captain America: Civil War, which contributed over $8.4 billion to her resume. Johansson also lending her voice to animated family films (which reliably make money) also contributed to this lifetime total as the smaller portions came from her work on the Sing films.
While Jurassic World: Rebirth is seeing financial success, the same enthusiasm isn’t coming from the reactions to the film itself. The critics’ aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes comes in at 52%, while audience ratings reached 72%. Our own Chris Bumbray couldn’t hide his disappointment in his review, where he says, “While Rebirth isn’t as ridiculous as Dominion, it’s likely a duller film overall—with less action, fewer scenes for its stars, and a flat visual style. It’s telling that it’s not getting an IMAX release, with the company instead keeping F1 on premium screens for another week before Superman arrives. Truthfully, it would’ve been a waste of the format. It’s a shame, because Gareth Edwards is a talented filmmaker, but this one feels more like his lifeless Godzilla reboot than any of his more imaginative efforts.”
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