The weekend box office numbers are in, and coming in first is...the 1993 film Jurassic Park?
Deadline reports that the Steven Spielberg-directed flick earned $517,600, just enough to pass Spielberg's 1975 classic Jaws, which came in second after tallying $516,300. Considering how bizarre 2020 has been, Jurassic Park claiming box office weekend supremacy 27 years later feels oddly on-brand.
As theaters slowly begin to make their return, moviegoers have been steering towards drive-ins to get their big screen fix, even if it means watching a movie from nearly three decades ago. According to an industry box office report obtained by Deadline, there are close to three times as many drive-ins currently open as there are cinemas. The highest-grossing venue was the Ford Wyoming Drive-in in Dearborn, Michigan with $127,300, a strong showing in comparison to the Megaplex Theatres at the District in South Jordan, Utah, which led all multiplexes with $14,600.
Texas currently has 82 theaters open, the most in the country, and way ahead of Ohio, which has the second-most with 56.
Jurassic Park's unexpected box office success this past weekend is also tied to the fact that studios are still holding off on releasing their new films until they are confident in its ability to pull in a profit. Tenet was stubbornly committed to its initial July 17 theatrical release date up until late May. Just three weeks after conceding that the latest Christopher Nolan epic would be delayed, Warner Bros. announced its new date of July 31.
This is the fourth time Jurassic Park has been No. 1 at the box office. The previous milestones occurred over a three-weekend stretch following its release on June 11, 1993.
