Jurassic World Rebirth Doesn’t Need to Cross the Billion to be a Hit
Despite what some people think, a billion-dollar gross is not the bar for success for the new Jurassic World movie. Let me tell you why...
Universal’s Jurassic World Rebirth is fast approaching. The movie is set to be released on July 2, almost 3 years after its predecessor, Jurassic World Dominion. There’s no need to say that this is one of the most anticipated movies of the summer. I mean, you have director Gareth Edwards (Rogue One, Godzilla, The Creator), who everyone agrees that even if the story is not great, the visuals will be top notch. And then there’s the cast – Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey and Rupert Friend. On top of that, the last trailer was pretty good.
Despite all of these elements, there’s no guarantee that this movie will cross the billion, nor does it have to. Every movie in the recent trilogy was able to cross the billion, but there was a consistent drop between each installment. The first Jurassic World movie grossed over 1.6 billion in 2015 (a decade ago!), while the second movie, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom grossed 1.3 billion in 2018, and the last one, Jurassic World Dominion, barely crossed the billion.
Judging by these drops, the new movie can also suffer a bit, especially because of the last movie. The reviews for Dominion weren’t good from critics and audiences alike, and I have a feeling that it will affect the new movie, at least at some capacity. It’s not unlike how Bumblebee, which is the best Transformers movie, was able to gross only around 400 million despite the amazing reviews – this movie had to pay the sins of its predecessors. This is why I always say that it’s better to have a movie with great reviews and 700 million at the box office, than a movie with bad reviews and 1 billion at the box office. When it comes to franchises, you need to think about the long term.
But, even if this movie won’t cross the billion-dollar mark, it’s not the end of the world. In fact, it doesn’t have to. One of the reasons why I love Universal Studios so much is because they usually know how to keep the budgets in check. Even the latter Fast and Furious movies cost just around the 200 million range. Yes, Fast X had a budget closer to 400 million, but it was because of all of the behind the scenes drama. They are also really good at keeping the animation movies budgets: Most of them cost around 80-100 million, which means these movies don’t need to “break the bank” in order to make profit.
It was reported that Jurassic World Rebirth cost around 180 million. Therefore, even if the movie grosses around 700-800 million, it will still be a great result. If the movie is at least solid, it will mark a successful relaunch for the franchise, and the chances for the next movie to top the billion will be pretty big. The movie will also have at least some competition from Superman and Fantastic Four, so we need to take these movies into account too. Remember, just because a movie doesn’t cross the billion, it doesn’t mean it’s a flop. You need to look at other factors: budget, reviews, franchise status, in order to really see what’s going on.