-

Jurassic World Dominion came in narrowly behind 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ($148 million) and notably behind 2015’s Jurassic World ($208.8 million), but boasts one of the biggest openings of the pandemic era. It even beat Top Gun 2′s three-day opening of $126.7 million, although it isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, since Maverick’s four-day launch was $260 million.

Critics ravaged the film, but audiences disagreed, giving it an A- CinemaScore and solid exits on PostTrak. Jurassic World Dominion presently has a 34 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, the lowest of any title in the iconic dino series.

One advantage is that Dominion is taking away Imax and premium large format screens from Top Gun: Maverick. Another advantage: Actors Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and BD Wong are reuniting for the first time since starring in director Steven Spielberg’s first Jurassic Park (1993).

And a third: Youngsters under 17 turned out in force (23 percent), signaling family appeal. The film skewed male (56 percent), while nearly half of ticket buyers (46 percent) were between ages 18 and 34, according to PostTrak. Higher-priced Imax and premium large format screens accounted for a whopping 35 percent of the gross (Imax alone turned in $25 million). And 3D accounted for 25 percent of ticket sales.

Director and Jurassic World architect Colin Trevorrow, after sitting out Fallen Kingdom, returned to helm Jurassic World Dominion, which is the final title in the trilogy that has been anchored by actors Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.

This time out, the dinosaurs live — and hunt — alongside humans all over the world. Jurassic World Dominion boasts never-seen dinosaurs and new visual effects.

Overseas, the movie began opening in a raft of additional markets this week, racking up a foreign tally of $247.4 million (it first launched last weekend in select territories). As with domestic, final numbers were higher than estimated on Sunday.