Superman Soars and Jurassic Roars - Weeks 10 & 11

Good golly, it’s fun to have theaters full and people wanting to see movies this summer. Last year had so many “Uh, $50 million openings aren’t so bad” moments, that it’s exciting to have some flicks knock it out of the park with legit triple-digit openings this season. Hopefully, the Fantastic Four can make it three-for-three next week!

Jurassic Park: Rebirth didn’t lay an egg with a $147.8 million five-day opening. Americans love their fireworks, dinosaurs, and air-conditioned screenings and this 4th of July Weekend was no exception. Also, kudos to Scarlett Johansson for passing Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Downey Jr. for highest grossing actor in history! 

Also, a special shout out to Hollywood for not using A.I. and letting actual humans write this script. There’s no way ChatGPT would’ve given us a 45-minute sub-plot about a family no one cares about, mercenaries with the personality of a #2 pencil, and opened every scene with a “Let’s remind the audience what we’re doing here again” line. I mean, my Echo Dot could’ve come up with something better than this. 

Meanwhile, the last son of Krypton (but not the last dog… and not the last cousin) had a rebirth of his own as Superman debuted to $125 million. People were ready to believe a man could fly again and the fresh coat of James Gunn paint seemed to do the trick. I was even tempted to try and bribe an AMC employee for one of the cool Superman promo t-shirts they were wearing, so the hype was working and people were buying. 

Warner Bros. was banking a lot on this film being the new start of their DC Universe and, truth be told, its debut was… fine. Honestly, it has another weekend with zero competition (Sorry, not sorry Smurfs and I Know What You Did Last Summer), so there’s lots of room for old fogeys (people my age) who need people telling them “They need to see this” to get their butts into a theater. Remember, Top Gun: Maverick’s opening wasn’t what made it bonkers, it was the sustained tickets being sold to people who hadn’t gone to a movie in years. Suffice to say, it has a chance to be the mega-hit Warner Bros. wants it to be. 

Still, Man of Steel opened with $116 million 13 years ago. A $9 million improvement when some theaters are now $22 a pop? I’d be a little nervous if I was actually invested in this… and I am because I picked this as my #3 film of the season :) 

Meanwhile, in case you were hoping for F1 to race its way into the Top Five podium, you can pump those brakes. It’s at $136.2 million so far but there’s no next gear that can help it catch the other contenders at this point. It was a nice road-side stop though!

The Top Five If Today Was Labor Day:

#1. Lilo & Stitch - $414.6 million

#2. How to Train Your Dragon - $239.9 million

#3. Jurassic Park: Rebirth - $232.2 million

#4. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning - $194 million

#5. Thunderbolts* - $189.9 million