JURASSIC PARK and JURASSIC WORLD: A Box Office History

One of the most successful film franchises of all time, for 29 years Universal’s Jurassic Park and Jurassic World trilogies have thrilled children and adults alike—conditioning people of all generations to fear ripples in a glass of water. In chronological order, here’s a look back at the financial returns of the series, the sixth installment of which premieres exclusively in theaters next Friday. 

Note: this list only includes earnings from a film’s original theatrical run and does not take into account admissions, re-releases, or figures adjusted for inflation. 


Jurassic Park

 
Release year: 1993
Domestic opening weekend: $47.0M
Domestic total: $357.0M
Overseas total: $621.1M
Global total: $978.1M
 
From the opening trumpet notes of John Williams’s iconic fanfare theme, to iconic quotes like Jeff Goldblum’s “Life finds a way,” almost everything about this film became iconic. 
 
Based on Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel about dinosaurs come back to life, Park‘s opening weekend set a then-record, beating 1992’s Batman Returns. The film’s $357.0M domestic total was by far the biggest of any 1993 release, +62% higher than the year’s runner-up Mrs. Doubtfire. But its nearly billion-dollar global haul was more than quadruple the runner-up (also Doubtfire).
 

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

 
Release year: 1997
Domestic opening weekend: $72.1M
Domestic total: $229.0M
Overseas total: $389.5M
Global total: $618.6M
 
One of the most highly-anticipated sequels of all time, this marked both Spielberg’s and Williams’s final installments as director and composer in the franchise. Many original cast members didn’t return either, including Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler and Sam Neill’s Alan Grant, while newcomers like Julianne Moore and Vince Vaughn joined instead.
 
Again based on a Chrichton thriller novel, this time his 1995 follow-up book, the film’s opening weekend again set an all-time record, beating 1995’s Batman Forever. It would finish as the year’s #3 film domestically, behind Titanic and Men in Black, and #4 globally behind those two titles and Bean.
 
It also earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects, the second and last of the franchise’s installments to do so, though it lost to Titanic.
 

Jurassic Park III

 
Release year: 2001
Domestic opening weekend: $50.7M
Domestic total: $181.1M
Overseas total: $187.6M
Global total: $368.7M
 
 
Considered in retrospect something of a one-off “in-between” title, coming after the Spielberg-helmed films but before the franchise’s return to cultural preeminence with the World trilogy, this title earned far and away the lowest box office in the Jurassic franchises. The film also boasts arguably the worst reception among the franchise’s films, earning both the lowest user rating on IMDb (5.9) and among critics on Metacritic (42%).
 
With Joe Johnston (Honey, I Shrunk the KidsJumanjiOctober Sky) taking over as director, the film came in ninth place for the year domestically and a slightly higher eighth place globally. Both of those rankings mark franchise lows.
 

Jurassic World

 
Release year: 2015
Domestic opening weekend: $208.8M
Domestic total: $652.2M
Overseas total: $1.01B
Global total: $1.67B
 
What a difference 14 years makes. Coming almost a decade and a half since the previous installment, the nostalgia factor played a heavy role in resurrecting the series to cultural dominance.
 
Starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, and directed by Colin Trevorrow who had previously only helmed small independent films, in this version the titular Jurassic World amusement park is among the planet’s most popular attractions. That’s almost the exact opposite premise of 1993’s original film, in which the main characters attempt to shut down the planned opening of the park before someone got hurt or killed. 
 
World‘s opening weekend yet again broke the record, held by 2012’s The Avengers, though it would in turn be broken only a few months later by Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In a related story, World would also finish as the year’s #2 film both domestically and globally, behind Awakens in both cases.
 

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

 
Release year: 2018
Domestic opening weekend: $148.0M
Domestic total: $417.7M
Overseas total: $890.7M
Global total: $1.30B
 
J.A. Bayona (The ImpossibleA Monster Calls) took over as director, with Goldblum’s character returning for the first time since 1997. The premise centers on James Cromwell’s character attempting to bring dinosaurs from the lone island where they currently live in relative isolation, and onto American soil.
 
Kingdom ranked as the #4 movie from 2018 domestically, behind Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Incredibles 2. Globally it fared a bit better in third place, behind Infinity and Panther
 
The film’s cliffhanger ending sets up the premise for this month’s upcoming installment, with various dinosaurs escaping captivity and entering the real world for the first time — presumably with further mayhem and carnage to ensue.
 

Jurassic World: Dominion

 
Billing itself as the conclusion of the saga, the sixth (and final?) film debuts exclusively in cinemas this Friday, June 10. Trevorrow returns as director, after helming the first Jurassic World but not the second one, as Pratt and Howard reunite with the original film’s stars Dern, Goldblum, and Neill.
 
This also marks something of a symbolic moment for Hollywood’s post-Covid recovery. Among live-action films, Dominion was Hollywood’s first major-studio title to resume production after the initial months of Covid lockdowns, doing so in mid-June 2020.
 

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