As Brad The Avengers, which pulled in $103.1 million during its second weekend back in 2012. Impressive, yes, but that is far from the only record Universal‘s latest dino adventure has toppled over the course of its box office run.
Through Sunday, Jurassic World has made a whopping $402.8 million at the domestic box office, making it Universal’s highest grossing movie ever (not accounting for inflation) and also the fastest film to cross the $400 million mark after doing so in just 10 days of release. The previous film to hold that record was, you guessed it, The Avengers, which isn’t a surprise, but perhaps it will surprise you to learn that it took Joss Whedon‘s superhero team-up a full 14 days to hit that mark, meaning Jurassic World did it in just over two-thirds the time. The reason? Director Colin Trevorrow‘s creature feature played unbelievably well during the week last week, breaking the record for the best non-holiday Monday ($25.3 million) and the best non-opening Tuesday ($24.3 million), records previously held by The Dark Knight at $24.5 million and $20.9 million respectively.
But wait — there’s more! Jurassic World also crushed it on Wednesday and Thursday last week, with the fourth largest non-opening Wednesday and the ninth largest non-opening Thursday. Universal’s surprise smash hit made $19.9 million last Wednesday, a figure outdone only by two films that opened the day prior (Transformers, The Amazing Spider-Man) and one that made its mark the day before Thanksgiving (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire). As for Thursday, Jurassic World scorched the box office for $17.8 million, again outdone only by films that opened the day or two days prior, including the first three Transformers movies, the fifth and sixth Harry Potter installments, Despicable Me 2, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Spider-Man 2.
In other words, the fact Jurassic World is only fourth on the non-opening Wednesday list and ninth on the non-opening Thursday list is actually a bit misleading, since neither last Wednesday nor last Thursday served as part of its true opening or a holiday frame.
In addition to setting records at the domestic box office, Jurassic World is breaking records worldwide, too. According to Box Office Mojo, the film will also be the fastest to the $1 billion mark, a record broken earlier this year by Universal’s own Furious 7. Jurassic World will cross the billy mark in 13 days, while Furious 7 did so in 17 days; before this year, the fastest films to $1 billion were The Avengers and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which both took 19 days to make their billion dollars.
Jurassic World, which was released in several major markets abroad two days before its June 12 domestic release, is the fastest movie to the $500 million mark at the foreign box office, crossing that milestone on Saturday after just 11 days of release in foreign theaters. Box Office Mojo also notes the film’s studio is officially enjoying its best year ever at the box office, as Universal has become the fastest studio ever to hit $1 billion at the domestic box office, $2 billion at the foreign box office and $3 billion at the worldwide box office en route to the $3.8 billion the studio has made through the first six months of 2015.
Back in 2013, the studio made $3.691 billion during the entire year, which is to say this year is blowing every other year out of the water for Universal. With plenty of time left for Jurassic World to rake in money and Ted 2 and Minions (among others) yet to be released, it would seem Universal has a solid chance at smashing the record $5.5 billion that 20th Century Fox made last year, and it could do so with a good chunk of the year left to put Fox far in its rearview.
The records are likely to continue falling over the coming days and weeks, and frankly it’s hard to tell where exactly Jurassic World will max out. Could it join Avatar and Titanic as just the third member of the $2 billion club at the worldwide box office? And what about domestically: Does Jurassic World have what it takes to make $600 million? $650 million? $700 million? Bear in mind, Avatar is the only movie to ever cross that last threshold, topping out at $760.5 million during its run. Where Jurassic World will wind up in the annals of box office history, I have no idea, but it’s kind of fun tracking its success, even if I didn’t find nearly this much enjoyment in the film itself.
