Eric Prime

LIFE FINDS A WAY 1993 was a crazy time to be alive. Bill Clinton became president, Food Network arrived on cable, Audrey Hepburn died, Cheers aired its series finale, Whoomp! There It Is invaded radio stations, and Beanie Babies, the 90s equivalent of NFTs, roamed the earth. But one pop culture event was the craziest one of all, at least within Hollywood. That year, Jurassic Park was released to the world. From the legend that is Steven Spielberg, Jurassic Park was a gamechanger, the kind Spielberg himself last achieved a decade-plus prior with Jaws and E.T. Through the wonders and majesty of computer animation, Steven Spielberg brought dinosaurs to life, with stunning designs and effects that still look amazing today. And through these special effects is a heart-pounding adventure with suspense, horror, action, and awe-inspiring wonder all at once. As such, Jurassic Park was instantly beloved by critics and the general public as the next evolution of blockbusters, no pun intended, influenced special effects extravaganzas like Independence Day, The Lord of the Rings, and tons more, and was the highest-grossing film of all time for four years straight, until the epic success of Titanic in 1997. This pedigree would continue with 1997’s The Lost World earning the biggest opening weekend in history, despite mixed reception from fans and critics, as well as 2001’s Jurassic Park III...making a lot of money I guess. And it seemed for a while that this was the end of the Jurassic Park story, with nothing else left to tell, and a shining legacy of one masterpiece and two...not masterpieces. But then 2015 came along. And everything changed. On that fateful June 12 release date, the world was in shock and awe as John Hammond’s dream of a dinosaur theme park was finally realized. And while this too was a not masterpiece, the people were in love. To the shock of everybody, the film that was projected to open between $125-200 million did the impossible and earned the biggest opening weekend of all time, toppling The Avengers from its three-year perch. It’s a record that nobody saw coming. Even $150 million would have been considered a rousing success. But out of nowhere, blindsiding everybody, this was the biggest debut in history and solidified Jurassic Park as an elite franchise at the box office, next to the MCU and Star Wars and Harry Potter. Speaking of, the record would not last, because another nostalgia-heavy sequel from a galaxy far far away would rake in even more dough. And yes, The Force Awakens’ numbers are more than impressive, and deserve their adulation and praise. But to me, Jurassic World was the most exciting and interesting box office story of that year. Force Awakens making over $900 million domestically is incredible and mind-blowing, but we all knew it was destined to make a lot of money solely on the nostalgia wave and excitement over the grand, epic return of Star Wars. This doing nearly a billion is incredible, but not super unbelievable. Jurassic World was something nobody expected to do $400 million, let alone $600 million with the opening weekend record. But it did, and is now Universal’s biggest cash cow at the moment. Countless video games, Lego sets, TV specials, two animated shows, with Camp Cretaceous in particular being a dynamite hit for Netflix, a roller coaster, and one big pile of shitload of toys have come out in the years since. Then of course, in 2018, the epic sequel launched with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. This too was a not masterpiece, but was still a monumental hit with $1.31 billion to its name, only further showcasing Jurassic as a dominant force in the box office, and the biggest non-Disney franchise out there today. And now, after numerous COVID delays, 2022 will give us the epic conclusion to the Jurassic World trilogy (even though we all know there will be a bajillion sequels after this), with Jurassic World: Dominion. And for Jurassic Park fans young and old, this is a monumental conclusion. An epic finale not unlike Avengers: Endgame or Deathly Hallows Part 2 before it. The film will finally give us dinosaurs living side by side with humans, a concept only teased prior to this movie. We get to see Chris Pratt do cool motorcycle shit yet again. And most exciting of all, Alan Grant, Ellie Satler, and Ian Malcolm are all finally together for the first time since 1993. That alone, in a market, is enough to get people excited. Finally, the original three are back together in a grand adventure that wraps up all their stories, in a conclusion that is designed to finish what was started way back in 1993...even though, again, we’ll probably get a bajillion more sequels after this. Predictions are pretty high for this release, but how high will the movie go? Will the dinos cause total carnage to the box office, or will we see a massive extinction of attendance? We don't know for certain, but this is sure to be an exciting opening weekend for all. But again, we must lay out some ground rules. 1. ABSOLUTELY NO SPOILERS. NOT EVEN SPOILERS POSTED UNDER SPOILER TAGS. This rule also applies to other movies in theaters and films/shows recently released on streaming. So no Top Gun: Maverick spoilers, no Bob's Burgers spoilers, no Stranger Things spoilers, no Obi-Wan spoilers, no Ms. Marvel spoilers, etc. If you do spoil something here, you will be banned. No exceptions. 2. KEEP YOUR AGENDA OUT OF HERE. 3. THE REPORT AND IGNORE BUTTONS ARE YOUR FRIENDS. While trolls are already bad, responding to them only makes it worse. 4. IS OFF-TOPIC DISCUSSION OKAY? Off-topic discussions are okay in situations where there's downtime and there aren't any numbers, so long as they don’t get heated. But when numbers are coming up and things are getting busy, then keep off-topic things down to the minimum. And lastly... 5. DON'T BE A DICK. So... WITHOUT FURTHER ADO LET'S DO THIS SHIT

Minions: The Rise of Gru Greater Philadelphia Area Seat Report T-22 and Counting Sellouts Showings Seats Sold Total Seats Perct Sold TOTALS 0 120 47 26275 0.18% Total Seats Sold Today: 0 Comp 0.165x of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 T-22 (1.03M) I wish I could say that was easy...but I have to go through 120 shows for nothing. These 2 PM starts will be the end of me.

Lightyear Greater Philadelphia Area Seat Report T-8 and Counting Sellouts Showings Seats Sold Total Seats Perct Sold TOTALS 0 102 261 19172 1.36% Total Seats Sold Today: 77 Comp 3.390x of Jungle Cruise T-8 (9.15M) 2.439x of Encanto's First Two Days of Sales (3.66M) 0.359x of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 T-8 (2.25M) 1.070x of Sonic the Hedghog 2's First Two Days of Sales (6.68M) The "First X Days" comps will be dropped tomorrow. So if you're wondering why Encanto will shoot up like crazy tomorrow, that's why.

Jurassic World: Dominion Greater Philadelphia Area Seat Report T-1 and Counting Sellouts Showings Seats Sold Total Seats Perct Sold TOTALS 0 156 4163 26260 15.85% Total Seats Sold Today: 662 Comp 1.648x of F9 T-1 (11.7M) 1.397x of Venom 2 T-1 (16.21M) 1.806x of No Time to Die T-1 (11.38M) 1.007x of Top Gun 2 T-1 (19.39M)

Moderation We're done with this Godzilla argument. We don't need to reheat these arguments again.

Weird to me the movie hasn't moved up to the first weekend of October already. They're just wasting valuable real estate here.

Moderation We're not doing this "grr critics bad" stuff here. Stop it before it gets any worse.

BOT is all about premature meltdowns and drama. It would feel alien if that didn't exist.

Hey if any of you Redditors reading this are able to find a way for me to meet Timothee, that would be soooooooo nice 😇

...excuse me?

Minions: The Rise of Gru Greater Philadelphia Area Seat Report T-23 and Counting Sellouts Showings Seats Sold Total Seats Perct Sold TOTALS 0 120 47 26275 0.18% Total Seats Sold Today: 9 Comp 0.193x of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 T-23 (1.2M)

Lightyear Greater Philadelphia Area Seat Report T-9 and Counting Sellouts Showings Seats Sold Total Seats Perct Sold TOTALS 0 102 184 19172 0.96% Comp 2.706x of Jungle Cruise T-9 (7.31M) 2.217x of Encanto's First Day of Sales (3.32M) 0.274x of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 T-9 (1.71M) 1.057x of Sonic the Hedgehog 2's First Day of Sales (6.61M) @Blankments wanted to be notified when I got the first batch of Lightyear presales up. So...here you go. I'm sure people will pronounce doom and gloom, but short ticket windows like these are very complicated, considering other movies have so much longer time to build up sales, hence using Sonic's first day as a comparison. I do think it might need a bit more momentum than normal, but things are still up in the air IMO

Jurassic World: Dominion Greater Philadelphia Area Seat Report T-2 and Counting Sellouts Showings Seats Sold Total Seats Perct Sold TOTALS 0 156 3501 26260 13.33% Total Seats Sold Today: 391 Comp 1.806x of F9 T-2 (12.83M) 1.618x of Venom 2 T-2 (18.77M) 1.873x of No Time to Die T-2 (11.8M) 0.973x of Top Gun 2 T-2 (18.73M) Yeah this is boned. Oh well.

Guys, we don't need all this Monday Morning Quarterbacking for Jurassic World and especially Lightyear. It's clogging up the thread.

Over Titanic or bust!!!!

...I expected that kind of reaction 😕