'Jurassic World Dominion' tops box office for second straight week, beating 'Lightyear' & 'Top Gun'

Just as they did 200 million years ago (not to mention back in 1993 when Jurassic Park first premiered), dinosaurs ruled the Earth at the weekend box office. For the second straight week, Jurassic World Dominion stomped straight to the top of moviegoers’ must-watch list, snacking on a first-place $58 million domestic haul over the holiday weekend to nibble at a total domestic take of close to $250 million.

In the second week following Dominion’s June 10 debut, the final film in the Jurassic World trilogy was an especially clever girl, even managing to outflank a brand-new Pixar film — and one packing a Toy Story pedigree at that. Despite finally breaking Disney’s long digital dearth of Pixar premieres, Lightyear — hyped as the first post-covid Pixar movie to hit theaters — wasn’t enough to topple Dominion’s two-week T-Rex tear. The computer-animated feature blasted only to a second-place finish behind the dinos, collecting $51 million domestically (and $85 million worldwide) in its opening weekend.

Lightyear’s comparatively light launch puts it well behind Disney’s initial hopes for a higher opening orbit. The Mouse House reportedly projected a domestic takeoff of $71 million for Lightyear, but with the summer blockbuster season finally in full swing, there wasn’t quite enough buzz — so to speak: “[H]eightened competition from Universal’s behemoth Jurassic World Dominion and Paramount’s high-flying Top Gun: Maverick,” reports Variety, continued to lure audiences to other screens. Together, Dominion and Maverick made up a combined $102.6 million of the weekend’s overall $163 million domestic take, according to IndieWire.

Finishing first in its second week has lifted Jurassic World Dominion past the $620 million total at the global box office. Universal’s undeniably summer-tastic dino romp — blending sci-fi action with a star cast hailing from both Jurassic trilogies — pulled in a tasty $145 million when it opened last weekend, finally toppling Top Gun: Maverick from its air-locked hold on the top box office spot, where Tom Cruise’s return to the cockpit had remained perched following its May 27 debut.

Not that Maverick is losing much altitude: In its fourth weekend, the Top Gun sequel took off with a $44 million domestic box office, dropping only 15 percent from its previous-week finish. That’s definitely an ace maneuver for the history books: “Only one other film that debuted in wide release has generated more in its fourth box office weekend — Avatar, with $50 million,” notes Variety. Overall, Top Gun: Maverick has gone truly stratospheric, taking $466 million domestically and $885 million worldwide since first landing in theaters on Memorial Day weekend.