“Jurassic World” is yet another sure-fire summer fun flick that should absolutely be seen in IMAX 3D to get maximum pleasure.
The nearly sell-out crowd at the first preview night showing at the AMC Santa Anita 16 mall theater tonight, Thursday, June 11, was cheering and and eventually applauding at the conclusion, very good signs of an authentic crowd-pleaser.
Updates June 14 & 15: Indeed, the movie wound up having the all-time biggest worldwide debut ever with the first-ever cumulative total topping $500 mil. — $511.8 mil. to be exact, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. And 50% of that came from 3D showings overall.
RealD reports that a whopping 65% of all international showings in 66 markets were in 3D (95% in China; 89% in Germany), with $205 mil. of the record-breaking $315.7 mil. overseas coming from 3D ticket sales. About $70 mil. of that was from theaters equipped with the RealD 3D technology.
IMAX was also setting records by the hour with $44.2 mil. of the overall haul coming from IMAX theaters alone — 50% better than that format’s previous all-time record, the $28.8 mil. of “Iron Man,” according to IMAX.
Domestically, “Jurassic World” debuted in IMAX with a benchmark $21 million on 363 IMAX screens. The five top-performing theaters overall were IMAX locations, as well as nine of the top ten, and 18 of the top 20.
The other $23.2 million came from 443 IMAX screens overseas, blowing out the previous best of $16.7 million (“Transformers: Age of Extinction”). In China, “Jurassic World” delivered $11.6 million on 209 IMAX screens, the second-best IMAX opening weekend ever behind “Avengers: Age of Ultron.”
The film registered a single-day IMAX record with $13 mil., a record $8.6 mil. domestically, followed by a record Saturday overseas with $6.5 mil.
This is not the groundbreaking film based on Michael Crichton’s provocative Jurassic Park novel that Steven Spielberg presented 22 years ago (IMAX re-released that film in 3D in 2013) — there is little wonder about CGI dinosaurs anymore — but it is pure fun, better than the last two sequels, and far bigger in scope.
Chris Pratt brings much of the pleasure and charm as a theme park employee who has figured out how to train a quartet of velociraptors.
But there are also delightful references to the original movie — the latest siblings in jeopardy stumble onto remnants and the jeeps from the original that are now in an abandoned building; the little animated character who explains DNA to park visitors is back in a more high-tech form (Jimmy Fallon — a member of the Universal/Comcast family — also makes a cameo in a park tourist video); and a building in the theme park is named Hammond, the name of the founder of the park played by the late Sir Richard Attenborough in the original.
The well-used 3D is also a key driver of the entertainment here, with some of the newly-designed super-sized dinos, especially the one in the water tank, looking like they are popping out of the screen – some water drops even hit the screen/camera. The beak of an escaped pterodactyl gets an especially protruding close-up. And the 3D really accentuates the depth between the helicopter flying over the park in Costa Rica at the front of the screen and the lush green island below.
What goes wrong this time is that the park’s managers, in their zest to continue to deliver ever bigger and scarier dinosaurs to guests who are growing bored by seeing the same ol’ T-Rex, have spliced that DNA with that of multiple other species to create a colossus with a mind of its own that escapes his pen (of course) and terrorizes thousands of unsuspecting park visitors.
The IMAX experience not only presents everything in the biggest dino-size possible, but also an exclusive 10-minute peek at the upcoming “Ant Man.”
And there is plenty of product-placement and self-reverential moments, such as the passing shot during the chaos in the theme park of a marquee trumpeting “The IMAX Experience.”
And Mercedes-Benz is clearly the sponsor vehicle of choice, with multiple models showcased prominently.
— By Scott Hettrick