The Weekend Report: Jurassic World's Recording-Breaking Weekend

In which I run down the big winners (and losers) at the box office this weekend.

Don't get me wrong.  I knew that Jurassic World was going to blow the rest of the box office out of the water.  I knew that it was going to be an absurdly one-sided weekend.  I just never imagined that it would have been so absolute.

At $82.8 million, Jurassic World now holds the third best opening day gross of any movie in history, only trailing behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 ($91 million) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($84.4 million).  Seeing as how I had to sit in the second row of my showing Thursday night (which was already the third showing of the night), this doesn't come as any kind of a surprise to me.

While there seems to be some dispute over what the final numbers are, Box Office Mojo reports that Jurassic World scored more than $204 million dollars domestically over its opening weekend, putting it just behind The Avengers' $207 million opening in 2012.  Other sources, like Comicbook.com, put the belated sequel at just South of $209 million.

But it's worldwide gross is something else entirely.  Globally, Jurassic World raked in over $511 million.  This means that it handily crushed the previous record holder's $483 million gross.  That movie?  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2.

Let that sink in for a minute.  Jurassic World absolutely destroyed Harry Potter's opening weekend.  It's potentially on track to be 2015's top grossing movie, in a year that includes Age of Ultron and The Force Awakens. 

Now, I knew that there was a considerable bit of life left in the franchise after more than twenty years and a string of increasingly bad sequels, but I never would have imagined that it would have been this dominating of a force with movie-goers.  The best part is that it's actually just that good of a movie: an astoundingly good sequel that understood exactly why the first one is as beloved as it is today.

You can expect my review of the astoundingly good Jurassic World later today.  Until then, suffice it to say that 's worth the price of admission: for you, your family, your friends and every last person you know.  It's worth watching repeatedly.  It's worth every last dollar it made over the weekend and well worth all of the hype that it's been receiving.  Jurassic World is simply worth it.

Box Office Ranking:

1) Jurassic World -  $204.6m
2) Spy - $16m
3)  San Andreas - $11m
4)  Insidious: Chapter 3 - $7.3m
5)  Pitch Perfect 2 - $6m
6)  Entourage - $4.3m
7)  Mad Max: Fury Road - $4.1m
8)  Avengers: Age of Ultron - $3.6m
9)  Tomorrowland - $3.1m
10)  Love & Mercy - $1.7

So what movie did you see in theaters this last weekend (my guess: Jurassic World)?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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