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Jurassic Park's Still Knows How to Make Bank at the Box Office, Even 30 Years Later
Turns out dinosaurs still rule the box office.
Even three decades later, Jurassic Park still proves it's got the cultural bite force of a fully-grown Tyrannosaurus rex. The 30th anniversary re-release of Steven Spielberg's game-changing dino-blockbuster netted an extra $1.7 million at the domestic box office this past weekend, thanks in part to the National Cinema Day deal offering $4 tickets for any format at theaters nationwide.
That wasn't enough to crack the Top 10, of course, but it came pretty damn close with a lucky spot in No. 13, coming in just below Disney's new Haunted Mansion adaptation. As our friends over at /FILM point out, the fact that the film is still able to draw in over $1 million in business after all this time is absolutely remarkable. Like clone prehistoric creatures from mosquitoes trapped in amber remarkable.
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Jurassic Park stomps back to the box office 30 years later
Okay, maybe that's not an apt comparison, but you get what we mean. Unlike the extinct animals at the heart of its story, Jurassic Park is not some bygone product of its time. Armed to the (very sharp) teeth iconic performances, rushing thrills, an original John Williams score, and nascent digital effects that still impossibly good in 2023, it continues to endure, jumping from one generation to the next.
"It would've been almost impossible to imagine that 30 years ago, when moviegoers walked into movie theaters to see Steven Spielberg's summer movie popcorn masterpiece, that in 2023 the film would grab a spot in the Top 15 at the box office," Paul Dergarabedian, Senior Media Analyst at Comscore, tells SYFY WIRE. "That would be like a movie opening this week landing in the top tier of the weekend box office in the summer of 2053 — a feat seemingly as fantastical as the plot of the movie itself. As the gift that keeps on giving to generations of movie fans (and theater owners), the allure of a fantastical world of T. rexes and Velociraptors will never go extinct and the power of Michael Crichton's novel, as realized by one of the maestros of cinema, will always retain its power to draw audiences to the big screen."
With just over $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales, Jurassic Park is the thirty-fourth-highest grossing movie of all time and remains Spielberg's biggest box office triumph to date as director.
The Jurassic Park and Jurassic World trilogies are currently available to purchase from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
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