Jurassic Park roared back to the top of the box office this weekend, 27 years after the dinosaur adventure film received its original release. When Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park was released in 1993, it topped the box office for three weeks, becoming both the highest-grossing film of the year and the highest-grossing film of all-time (before Titanic came along in 1997). To this day, Jurassic Park still ranks 40th on the all-time highest-grossing films list, one of less than 50 films to top $1 billion at the box office. The franchise's popularity remains strong today, with Jurassic World and its sequel, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, both topping the $1 billion total gross mark as well.
With a limited number of movies playing in theaters right now - and even less of those movies being new releases - the box office numbers have been perilously low for the film industry. But that lack of new releases has granted theaters the freedom to experiment with bringing classic films back to the box office, potentially opening up an intriguing revenue stream for struggling theater owners. One classic that showed success this past weekend was Jurassic Park.
According to Deadline, Jurassic Park topped the Father's Day weekend box office, its first time in the top spot since its original release. The Universal Pictures film played in 230 theaters from June 19-21, earning $517,600. Jurassic Park displaced The Invisible Man at the top of the box office, with the Blumhouse's horror reboot grossing just over $200,000 for the weekend.
Jurassic Park isn't the only classic Spielberg film that pulled in solid numbers this weekend. It only finished $1,300 ahead of another Universal Pictures film, Jaws, which came in at second in the box office. Jaws is significantly older than Jurassic Park, having come out exactly 45 years ago this weekend. It only played in 187 theaters this weekend, meaning a couple of more showings could've put it over the edge and into first place. Spielberg's films coming in at the top of the box office isn't uncommon, but these numbers hint that the film industry could soon go back to normal.
Classic films are littered all over the top of the box office list for the previous weekend, suggesting there may be an appetite to return to theaters to see historical movies as well as anticipated un-released films. This also may have been buoyed by Father's Day this weekend, with parents retreating to theaters to show their children favorite films of their own childhood. Regardless, Jurassic Park topping the weekend box office isn't just a historical oddity - it could be the start of a trend as the movie industry tries roaring back to life.
Source: Deadline
