Wednesday, April 30, 2025

June 15, 2015

Behold: The First Movie To Ever Pull In Over Half A Billion Dollars On Opening Weekend

Whilst cinema ticket prices around the world aren't exactly getting cheaper it's still a pretty big deal to gross half a billion dollars on opening weekend. Meet your record holder.

Putting together a Hollywood heavyweight movie doesn’t come cheap these days. The CGI, the big name movie stars, the assistant to the assistant that assists the assistant – before you know it you’re looking at some pretty big numbers.

Of course spending money on a movie doesn’t guarantee its success (Mars vs Moms, budget $150 million, grossed $38 million – awkward) but it certainly helps. The folks responsible for Jurassic World, Universal Studios, will be glad they spent an estimated $150 million on production because their dinosaurs have just made movie history. BusinessInsider reports:

The film, which debuted to an estimated $204.6 million in North America, opened to $307.2 million overseas, bringing its worldwide opening weekend to $511.8 million.

That figure not only makes it Universal’s largest box-office opening ever, but also the largest worldwide opening for a movie ever and the only to crack $500 million in its first weekend. The ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2’ is second all-time at $483 million.

Take that, boy wizard! Looks like you have been knocked from your perch. The movie is expected to cross the $1 billion mark with ease, although whether it will reach the heights of Furious 7, which has grossed over $1,5 billion, remains to be seen.

You can enjoy the official trailer below.

[source:businessinsider]