Which Jurassic Park film has roared loudest at the ticket booth?
By Frank Pallotta, CNN Business
“Jurassic World: Dominion,” the latest film in the Jurassic Park franchise, stomps into theaters this weekend. The sixth film in the dinosaurs-run-amok series could be one of the biggest of the summer — if not the entire year.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Jurassic Park franchise has been one of the most popular brands in Hollywood since the 1993 original, notching roughly $5 billion at the global box office.
But which film has had the most deafening roar at the ticket booth?
Here’s a list of the franchise’s biggest blockbusters at the domestic box office, adjusted for inflation, according to Comscore.
5. Jurassic Park III
Year: 2001
Box office haul: $181.1 million
Adjusted for inflation: $293.7 million
Despite the return of Sam Neill’s Dr. Alan Grant (and a cameo from Laura Dern’s Dr. Ellie Sattler), “Jurassic Park III” couldn’t live up to the box office success of its two predecessors.
Why not? For starters, this was the first film in the franchise that wasn’t directed by Steven Spielberg, and it wasn’t based on a Michael Crichton best seller, either.
The film, in which Grant returns to the dinosaur island to save a lost boy, also received bad reviews notching a 48% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Even so, it still managed to come in at No. 7 at the North America box office that year.
4. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Year: 2018
Box office haul: $417.9 million
Adjusted for inflation: $420.2 million
“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” may have the lowest review score of the entire series (47% on Rotten Tomatoes), but that didn’t stop audiences from lining up. It was the fourth highest-grossing film of 2018.
It had the benefit of coming after 2015’s “Jurassic World,” one of the biggest blockbusters of all time. Also, it starred Chris Pratt, who was arguably hitting his zenith as a movie star in both the Jurassic World and Marvel franchises in the same year.
“Fallen Kingdom,” in which Pratt and co-star Bryce Dallas Howard save dinosaurs from an active volcano, is the second film in the series to make over $1 billion worldwide.
3. The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Year: 1997
Box office haul: $229 million
Adjusted for inflation: $457.1 million
It’s hard to overstate just how much anticipation swirled around “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” when it opened in 1997. The film, the franchise’s first sequel, brought back Jeff Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm, and was simply everywhere from Burger King to comic books. It even had its own cereal, “Jurassic Park Crunch,” whose cereal shapes were meant to resemble dinosaur footprints.
But the film was a letdown with critics, garnering lackluster reviews and it failed live up to the original “Jurassic Park.” Still, it was a huge hit, opening to $72 million in North America — a record at the time.
2. Jurassic World
Year: 2015
Box office haul: $654.1 million
Adjusted for inflation: $710.7 million
“Jurassic World” may have had the hardest task of all the films in the series: rebooting the franchise for a new generation of fans. It pulled it off.
The film, which imagined what Jurassic Park would look like if the theme park was operational, had a potent mixture for blockbuster success. Pratt, its star, was coming off the very popular Marvel film “Guardians of the Galaxy” and audiences were ready to embrace the nostalgia from the original film.
The film opened to a then-record $208 million in North America before going on to be the seventh highest-grossing film of all time with a $1.6 billion box office haul.
1. Jurassic Park
Year: 1993
Box office haul: $350.8 million
Adjusted for inflation: $776.2 million
There are blockbusters, and then there’s “Jurassic Park.”
The original 1993 film directed by Steven Spielberg changed cinema thanks to its use of special effects. But “Jurassic Park” is far more than CGI dinosaurs tearing up a theme park and terrifying the humans there. It’s a cinematic classic with nonstop thrills, wonder and even heart.
This is what made the film the highest-grossing film ever at the time. The film’s stature has only grown since, creating a new franchise that continues to dominate the box office today.
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