The sci-fi adventure set to surpass The Avengers, but unlikely to catch up with the James Cameron love story.
WASHINGTON, DC: Jurassic World, the Colin Trevorrow-directed sci-fi adventure released last month, has become the fourth highest grossing film of all time, passing Fast & Furious 7 and is on track to become the third highest surpassing The Avengers in the next few days.
The domestic total for Jurassic World now stands at $611 million, and, combined with its international earnings, the total worldwide gross of the movie is $1.51 billion, as of July 19.
After already breaking nearly every single short term box office record, including the fastest to $100 million, $200 million, $300 million, $400 million, $500 million and $600 domestically (only the fourth film to do so), the next step is the highest grossing film of all time. That title is now held by Avatar, which earned $2.7 billion worldwide.
In order to pass the James Cameron movie, Jurassic World will need to earn at least another $150 million domestically and another billion worldwide. However, Jurassic World does not seem to have the lengthy legs Avatar had. It also does not have the benefit of going against weaker competitors for a prolonged period. James Cameron’s Titanic (not adjusted for inflation), however, seems like a more feasible goal.
Jurassic World is already quite close to passing Titanic’s domestic gross of $658 million (including the 2012 re-release), but when it comes to international gross, the dinosaurs will need a long way to go.
What are the chances of Jurassic World passing Titanic?
In order to surpass Titanic, Trevorrow’s film will need approximately an additional $700 million. Although it has run for only 38 days, modern mega-hits don’t perform the same way earlier films used to.
Nowadays a film’s opening weekend is often a large portion of its total gross. Jurassic World’s massive opening weekend is a little less than 15 percent of its total gross. To put that into perspective Titanic had a $28 million domestic opening weekend, or a little more than 1 percent of its total gross.
Early box office projections indicated that Jurassic World would yield around $80 million to $125 million domestically in its first week. However, it blew all box office expectations out of the water, making more than $208 million in its first three days, becoming the film with the highest grossing domestic opening weekend of all time, besting The Avengers’ $207 million.
The money train didn’t stop there. Combined with its international gross, the Jurassic sequel made $524 million globally in a single weekend. The film then went on to earn more than $106 million domestically in its second weekend, beating yet another record once held by The Avengers ($103 million). It then hit $1 billion worldwide in just 13 days, breaking another record.
But then it began slowing down, unlike Titanic.
Although it took Titanic about four weeks to earn what Jurassic World did in its opening weekend, Titanic was extremely leggy, dropping no more than 10 percent to 35 percent each week, while Jurassic World has seen a steady 50 percent drop each passing week.
Titanic was in theaters for 41 weeks, while using films, such as Avengers: Age of Ultron and Fast & Furious 7 to base, the prehistoric megahit is seeing a minimum of 11 and a maximum of 14 weeks in theaters.
There is still a sliver of hope for Jurassic World, as let’s not forget Jurassic World’s initial break out speed. It has surpassed Titanic’s initial domestic run (excluding the 2012 rerelease) of $600 million, in less than six weeks vs. Titanic’s 41 weeks.
Another factor that should come into play is that the next two weeks have not many potential blockbusters hitting the theatres, which should show in its upcoming earnings. And few of the upcoming films appeal to family audiences, an advantage which should also play into Jurassic World’s favor.
Jurassic World has a low chance of surpassing Titanic, although the film still has a long theater life ahead, it is just not as leggy. At the end of the day, even if Jurassic World never ends up passing James Cameron’s beloved classic, it still will have broken numerous box office records and lives on as a worthy Jurassic Park sequel.
18 Comments
Let’s not forget though, that Jurassic World has not yet opened in Japan. Japan’s release date for it is August 5th. While this still makes surpassing Titantic a long shot, it is not as futile as if we were relying completely on people going to see a second, third, fourth (etc) time.
I LOVED this movie and it has broken enormous records! All time it’s likely going to be in third place behind Titanic. But this film’s MASSIVE opening box-office ROMP was one for the ages!
It has already now passed Titanic’s original gross (not including the 3-D re-release) but that is unadjusted for inflation, adjusted for inflation Titanic has made over $1 Billion in today’s money.
Yes, but if we adjust for inflation then the list of highest grossing movies would read Gone With The Wind, Avatar, Star Wars, and Titantic. Putting it at number 4, instead of 2.
“Although it has run for only 38 days, modern mega-hits don’t perform the same way earlier films used to.” Are you suggesting Titanic doesn’t get lumped into “modern day films”? I’m guessing you weren’t paying attention to box office numbers back then, Titanic was just as much an anomaly then as it would be now. That was only the norm prior to the home video era.
The difference is that Titanic continued to put up massive numbers even months after it was released, it was #1 for 15 consecutive weeks. Jurassic World is going the way of most other films released in today’s era, where it quickly fades out after only a few weeks.
If they keep it in theaters long after it should be gone, like they did with titanic it’ll EASILY pass it up and avenge it’s predecessors unjust unseating as the highest grossing movie of all time.
And then, maybe, just maybe, however unlikely Jurassic world could take its predecessors place as the highest grossing movie of all time…..I think that would be awesome. I’m all for an original story or concept wearing the crown.instead of a bastardation of a real tragedy, or a rip off point for point of dances with wolves.
I would much rather creativity be king for a while
“If they keep it in theaters long after it should be gone, like they did with titanic”… Titanic was still making over a $1 million per day after 100 days! Looking at the current weekly drop and The Avengers as a guide, Jurassic Park will be below $1M per day after just about 50 days. Titanic’s legs were just much, much longer. It deserved to be in theaters for as long as it was.
As far as creativity goes: JW is a sequel to a book adaptation. Don’t get me wrong: it’s an awesome movie and I am a huge JP/JW fan, but it makes no sense to argue it is somehow more creative than Titanic.
one is a creative original idea (that being Jurassic Park), the other is taking a tragedy and forcing a tired love triangle into it.
That’s not creative at all. as a story it’s almost cookie cutter. whether you love titanic or not, it’s really hard to argue that the story broke any ground at all. at least from a story telling standpoint
As much as I would be happy for jurassic world to surpass Titanic I do not think this is going to happen. The movie is entering now into that peculiar phase where it will earn very little per day and it will be a good result if it can catch up with the avengers
It’ll definitely catch Avengers. It only needs $13M. With the current weekly drops, I expect it to make another $20M comfortably. About $5M mon-fri, another $5M next weekend and then $10M in “spare change”.
I agree Japan could be massive ($50M+), but there is no way JW will pass Titanic for global. Even if the other foreign territories add another $50M (highly doubtful, considering the China run is over), that would make the maximum foreign box office ~1B. That leaves JW fourth behind Avatar, Titanic & Furious 7 for foreign.
I’d estimate another $25M max in the US (without a Labor Day re-release). Making JW third both domestic and worldwide. The only way it could take 2nd domestic is an extended edition or IMAX re-release for Labor Day Weekend. If Universal does that, JW *might* take another $50M this year, putting it just above Titanic domestic.
JW was an okay movie. Not to the same scale emotionally as Titanic. Interesting to see if it tops Titanic. With Japan to come it may change things. The question is, what does this say about our viewing audience? That a substandard plot and great effects can topple a great story telling movie? Sad to think that bluster can overtake good old fashion story telling in my book.
Liked, not loved minions. Looking forward to Ant Man though. More to come……..
You are forgetting the massive release for JW in Japan on August 8th. Japan is known to favor Dinosour like creatures(Godzilla). They have waited a long time and they are the 2nd-3rd biggest movie market this year. Waiting+Impatience+Nolstalgic Movie+Massive Release+Jelousy= MASSIVE HIT
The article is asking whether Jurassic World would pass Titanic’s DOMESTIC gross (US and Canada), not worldwide gross. JW would have to make nearly $700m in Japan to topple Titanic’s worldwide gross, and no film has ever come close to that amount in Japan (and last year’s Godzilla only made $30m in Japan). There’s every possibility that JW will top Titanic in the US and Canada though. At time of writing, it needs another $47.5m – and The Avengers made $51m more after its 38th day on release back in 2012. If JW does pass Titanic though, it will be only by a whisker.
Remember that Avengers run included a 1500 screen bump for Labor Day weekend with an additional post-credits scene. For JW to beat Titanic, it requires Universal do something similar: release a director’s cut for LDW.
yes but the Labor Day bump and extra scene only gave Avengers another $5m for its last month in theaters, so its not necessarily vital. Of course, every little helps when the game is this close so it would certainly be wise for Universal to consider something similar.
You’re right. Somehow I thought it was >$10M. If Universal can get some IMAX screens with extended release… I’d definitely go again.