5 Reasons Why Jurassic World Rebirth Ruled The 4th Of July Box Office

Over the extended Fourth of July weekend, Universal Pictures once again proved that the "Jurassic Park"/"Jurassic World" franchise is one of the biggest, most consistent performers at the box office. The latest and seventh overall entry in the long-running property, "Jurassic World Rebirth," arrived in theaters just ahead of the long holiday frame and, put simply, it made bank. And while there is much to be said about the box office returns themselves, the numbers are certainly impressive on the surface alone.

Director Gareth Edwards' "Rebirth" opened to $147.3 million domestically over its first five days of release to go with a whopping $174.7 million internationally for a total of $322 million. That represents one of the biggest openings for a Hollywood movie in 2025 thus far, trailing only the massive Chinese blockbuster "Ne-Zha 2." That number was also well ahead of pre-release projections, which is always a good sign.

In terms of the pure weekend, "Rebirth" made $91.5 million over the Friday to Sunday stretch, which is well behind 2022's "Jurassic World Dominion" ($145 million), 2018's "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" ($148 million), and 2015's "Jurassic World" ($208 million). Even so, the latest "Jurassic" movie now owns the record for the biggest Fourth of July opening ever, topping 2022's "Minions: The Rise of Gru" ($123 million).

So, what went right for Universal here? How did this movie manage to evade franchise fatigue and potentially secure a bright future for one of the biggest properties in modern Hollywood? We're going to look at the biggest reasons why "Jurassic World Rebirth" was a major box office success in its debut. Let's dive in.

"Jurassic World Dominion" was a rare pandemic era $1 billion box office hit, becoming one of just a handful of movies that have managed to eclipse that milestone since 2022. Yet, it also earned the worst reviews by far in the history of the franchise, which extends more than 30 years at this point dating back to Steven Spielberg's original "Jurassic Park" in 1993. That being the case, it was imperative that Universal course correct with this latest entry. Luckily, that's precisely what it did.

Thanks in no small part to Edwards, whose previous directing credits include "Godzilla" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," reviews for "Rebirth" were better than those for "Dominion," even if they're still largely mixed, at least from critics. More importantly though, audiences enjoyed "Rebirth" quite a bit. The movie carries a 52% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes but a solid 72% audience rating. It also earned a pretty decent B CinemaScore.

Those may not be glowing endorsements, but it's enough to ensure that the ship is steering in a better direction. At the very least, it's probably good enough to help guarantee that many audience members will give the next movie a shot, as opposed to this being the beginning of the end, had the reception been as bad as it was for "Dominion." The bar was, admittedly, very low, but this film cleared it all the same. 

For the right movie, the long Fourth of July weekend can prove fruitful. Safe to say, "Jurassic World Rebirth" was the right movie. Again, it didn't make as much as its predecessors did over a three-day weekend, but giving the film time to breathe over a long weekend helped word of mouth build. That word of mouth was also positive, and that momentum carried over into Monday. That's why the movie came in well above what pre-release tracking suggested.

The other important factor was the lack of big-name competition on this particular date. The previous weekend's champion, "F1," held decently well with a $25.7 million second weekend take, but that was hardly a threat to "Rebirth." Things also went from bad to worse for "M3GAN 2.0," which made just $3.8 million in its second go-round. The larger point is that nothing else in theaters took a bite out of this movie's lunch.

Yes, "Rebirth" will have to contend with James Gunn's "Superman" this upcoming weekend, but even if it falls off a cliff its opening was strong enough that it could still coast to $650 million globally without breaking a sweat. If "Rebirth" doesn't drop like a rock against "Superman" come next Monday? The sky could be the limit.

For whatever reason, there tends to be an outsized focus on domestic box office performance, with most headlines highlighting the number that a given movie puts up in North America. That is unquestionably a key factor, but let us never forget that it's a global theatrical marketplace and the box office is, as such, a global business. Case in point, 2015's "Jurassic World" made $1.67 billion worldwide but just over $1 billion of its total gross (or roughly 61%) came from overseas markets.

While much has changed over the last decade, "Rebirth" has proven that the global audience for these movies remains massive. In fact, the film's international numbers came in even higher than Sunday estimates suggested. More importantly, the movie made $41.5 million in China, which is the sort of number most Hollywood films can't depend on in the country anymore. There's also a strong chance this movie will hold better overseas in the coming weeks against the likes of "Superman" and "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." Those international ticket sales are, in all likelihood, going to ensure that this film will be one of Hollywood's top-grossing releases of 2025 when all's said and done.

One of the key decisions that Universal made in putting together "Rebirth" was to focus on something new. It left characters like Chris Pratt's Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire Dearing in the past with the previous "Jurassic World" trilogy, deciding instead to focus on an entirely new cast of characters in an entirely different setting (the island of Ile Saint-Hubert). That decision paid off.

Led by Scarlett Johansson's Zora Bennett, the new movie boasts an impressive ensemble that helped draw audiences in. Case in point, Johansson is now the highest-grossing lead actor in history. So, her appeal is certainly meaningful here. But the film also brought in two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali ("Moonlight") and Jonathan Bailey, who was coming off the huge success of "Wicked." Similarly, the movie's supporting cast is filled with up-and-coming stars like Luna Blaise ("Manifest") and reliable actors like Rupert Friend ("Companion").

The result was a winning formula for audiences. Sure, the dinosaurs are always going to be the stars of the show here, but "Rebirth" demonstrating a willingness to do something different, all while not having to pay outsized salaries for returning stars like Pratt, undoubtedly helped. The movie's reported $180 million budget is high, no question, but it's not as big as other recent blockbusters, and at this rate, it will be into profits in no time. Bringing back previous cast members would have resulted in a bigger budget and, based on these returns, that probably wouldn't have been a necessary expenditure.

There has been a fair amount of ink spilled regarding the "Jurassic World" movies. Nobody is going to try to pretend these movies, particularly "Fallen Kingdom," "Dominion," or "Rebirth," are nearly as good as the original "Jurassic Park," which is one of the most roundly beloved blockbusters of all time. That said, for as much complaining as one might see about the quality of these films, the success of "Rebirth" in the early going makes it crystal clear that general audiences (as in, the ones who spend the money and don't live their lives online) love these movies. Period.

To that end, even though "Rebirth" didn't get an IMAX release, audiences still sought out premium experiences, with IMAX rival Dolby Cinema's sales representing nearly $8 million of the film's domestic opening. That means Dolby Cinema contributed 5.0% of the movie's total domestic opening weekend gross despite only representing only 1.8% of the total screens showing the film. That suggests these "Jurassic" installments are still events worth seeking out for the average ticket buyer.

Certain folks hate this movie. There are endless tweets about how the "Jurassic World" films all suck. Yet, most people at least like or even love "Jurassic World." They also enjoyed "Fallen Kingdom" enough to make "Dominion" a $1 billion success in spite of its terrible reviews. Heck, they like these movies so much they were willing to give "Rebirth" a chance even after "Dominion." Few franchises are afforded such grace. Online chatter be damned, people very reliably, happily show up for these films.

"Jurassic World Rebirth" is in theaters now.