Breaks opening weekend box office records.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: “Jurassic World” has surpassed even the loftiest of expectations by smashing domestic box office records with a haul of $208.8 million during its opening weekend.
The staggering windfall means the fourth installment of the “Jurassic Park” series, which originally wowed audiences with its groundbreaking animatronic depictions of dinosaurs and a healthy dose of Jeff Goldblum’s timeless snark in 1993, has dethroned Joss Whedon’s “The Avengers” as the highest grossing domestic opening of all time — a title it has held since 2012.
The action-adventure film, starring Chris Pratt and a slew of now CG dinosaurs, also set a new record with a $524.4 million haul globally.
“I’ve never seen a film obliterate all expectations in the way ‘Jurassic World’ has,†Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Rentrak, said in an interview with Bloomberg Business. “This was such a mammoth debut. It is going to create a lot of momentum going forward that could make this summer a record-breaker for the industry.â€
As a result of a strong of mega-hits, including “Furious 7,” which topped the $1 billion mark globally this year, “Pitch Perfect 2,” which posted the highest cinematic musical opening ever, and “50 Shades of grey,” which debuted in February with the biggest Valentine’s Day opening in history, Universal set numerous records in becoming the studio to reach the $1billion mark at the domestic box office and the fastest studio to surpass $3 billion worldwide in one calendar year, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The following are the top opening weekend earners in cinematic history according to information gleaned from Box Office Mojo and subsequently updated with Jurassic World’s record-breaking numbers:
| Rank | Title | Opening | Total Gross |
| 1 | Jurassic World | $208,800,000 | $204,600,000 |
| 2 | Marvel’s The Avengers | $207,438,708 | $623,357,910 |
| 3 | Avengers: Age of Ultron | $191,271,109 | $444,743,000 |
| 4 | Iron Man 3 | $174,144,585 | $409,013,994 |
| 5 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 | $169,189,427 | $381,011,219 |
| 6 | The Dark Knight Rises | $160,887,295 | $448,139,099 |
| 7 | The Dark Knight | $158,411,483 | $533,345,358 |
| 8 | The Hunger Games: Catching Fire | $158,074,286 | $424,668,047 |
| 9 | The Hunger Games | $152,535,747 | $408,010,692 |
| 10 | Spider-Man 3 | $151,116,516 | $336,530,303 |