Chris Pratt, left, and Bryce Dallas Howard in, "Jurassic World." (The Associated Press)
These are the weekends that record breaking summers are made of.
The North American box office sizzled as Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out” and Universal’s “Jurassic World” duked it out at the multiplexes. After shattering records for domestic and international debuts, “Jurassic World” became only the second film in history to top $100 million in two separate weekends.
The dinosaur sequel nabbed first place with a massive $102 million, pushing its domestic total to $398.2 million. “Jurassic World” has now passed “Jurassic Park” ($357.1 million) as the highest grossing domestic release in the franchise’s history when not adjusted for inflation.
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Its dominance ended one of the most remarkable winning streaks in cinema history, putting a period to Pixar’s run of first place finishes. Every previous film released by the studio bowed in the top spot on domestic charts.
Not that Disney is complaining. Buoyed by rapturous critical notices, “Inside Out” scored the second best debut ever for Pixar, behind only “Toy Story 3’s” $110.3 million opening. The brainy family film picked up $91 million from 3,946 playdates. That was a significant jump on the $60 million-plus opening that Disney had projected.
“Inside Out,” which unfolds largely inside the mind of a young girl struggling to come to terms with her family’s move, represented a big gamble for Pixar. Produced for $175 million, it had a concept that defied an easy sales pitch and could have gone soaring over the heads of younger moviegoers. Instead, critics praised the film as ranking alongside previous Pixar greats such as “Up” and “Wall-E” in pairing cinematic daring with emotional uplift.
It wasn’t just reviews. Production delays on “The Good Dinosaur” meant that 2014 was bereft of a Pixar release, putting a two-year gap between the animation studio’s films and driving interest in its latest title.
There was one casualty at the box office. Open Road’s “Dope” did not perform as well as the studio had hoped. The Sundance Film Festival favorite sparked a bidding war when it debuted in Park City, but the picture’s off-beat sensibility (its a comedy about nerds living in South Central), was difficult to convey to audiences. “Dope” pulled in a disappointing $6 million from 2,002 locations.
This article originally appeared in Variety.
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