West coast shows started at 7PM and the evening has a way to go. Eastern time zone showtimes also began at 7PM. This forecast comes from Deadline sources, not Universal as the studio doesn’t report until tomorrow morning.
Should Fallen Kingdom remain at its current pace tonight, the J.A. Bayona-directed feature will file ahead of such previews as Fate of the Furious ($10.4M), Wonder Woman ($11M), and Guardians of the Galaxy ($11.2M). At 600 locations today, starting at 3:30PM local time, Jurassic World double features were held.
Jurassic World three years ago posted a Thursday night of $18.5M which repped 22.5% of its $81.95M first day, which is the sixth highest Friday ever. The Colin Trevorrow-directed movie, which at the time was only expected to open to $110M-$140M, blew away those estimates for an unexpected, then all-time domestic record of $208.8M (before being unseated by Star Wars: Force Awakens six months later at $247.9M, which was then defeated by Avengers: Infinity War‘s $257.7M two months ago).
And note the Rotten Tomatoes score at the time wasn’t super high for Jurassic World at 71% fresh, uncertified. Given the legacy appeal of the brand, audiences young and old flooded cinemas, giving Jurassic World an A, and moving the title at a 3x multiple for a final U.S./Canada haul of $652.2M.
No one is expecting Fallen Kingdom to emulate Jurassic World since the previous installment arrived with an unprecedented amount of pent-up demand. That said, the low-end of opening projections for Fallen Kingdom start at $130M/$135M. Current Rotten Tomatoes is 53% Rotten.
Fallen Kingdom opens in 4,450 theaters tomorrow, including 3D, Imax and other premium large format screens.