There is a new box office champion in town, and there are no superheroes in sight: “Jurassic World” pulled in the biggest domestic opening of all time last weekend, with a simply astonishing $208.8 million debut in the United States to eclipse the previous record holder, the first Avengers film.
That is one big pile of cash.
That is one big pile of cash.
Franchises are clearly the easiest way to print money in Hollywood, but maybe oversaturation isn’t the answer. Universal’s Jurassic franchise has laid dormant since 2001’s underwhelming “Jurassic Park III,” with this fourth installment languishing in development hell. This year, it finally emerged from the grave, and Universal spared no expense to fuel its return.
This time around, there are dinosaurs in the dinosaur park. With trailers flaunting both this narrative development and burgeoning star Chris Pratt in the lead role, Universal kicked the marketing machine into high gear. Cue dinosaur mania.
The marketing smartly found a way to tap into the nostalgia of Spielberg’s original “Jurassic Park” (which I promise I’m done quoting) while simultaneously pretending that the sequels never happened. This way, the film grabbed the interest of older viewers while the merchandising onslaught helped to grab younger ones – can you say LEGO tie-ins?
(Sidebar: You don’t become the biggest toy company in the world without smart leadership. LEGO has smartly tied its wagon to the biggest franchises in media in the past two decades, with Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings just a few of the big themes under its belt. With Age of Ultron toys a few months ago and The Force Awakens toys coming this holiday, why not throw Jurassic World toys in there as well? I’ll tell you this: my local movie theater, located in a mall, sends many outgoing viewers through a Target. Let’s see how many families pass through the toy section and don’t get hung up on the LEGO T-Rex. And, that’s assuming they’ve already made it safely past the Lego Jurassic World video game. A friend of mine who hasn’t owned a LEGO game in years grabbed that one after seeing the movie. The power of the dino.)
Wait – where were we? Oh, the movie itself.
In the case of event films like “Jurassic World,” the quality of the movie itself gets lost. Viewers are so happy just to be there that they get high off the spectacle of the damn thing and forget if it was actually any good. The Internet gets caught up in debates that are only amplified by the movie’s popularity with the general public. Meanwhile, the business side of the film’s success quietly influences the future behind the scenes.
“Jurassic World” delivers what it needs to. The special effects are pretty, the dinosaurs look cool, and Chris Pratt stands in front of the whole thing. Also, it has a kickass ending that smartly incorporates both the franchise’s past and its present while turning a blind eye to its future. In the age of cliffhangers and post-credit scenes, this is a nice breath of fresh air.
However, I suspect it won’t hold up well to repeat viewings. While Spielberg was able to deftly shift back and forth between wonder and horror in “Jurassic Park,” new director Colin Trevorrow doesn’t quite have the same stranglehold on his craft, and it shows in “World.”
And why should he? Trevorrow had just one feature behind him coming into this powerhouse: the 2012 indie time travel dramedy “Safety Not Guaranteed.” The new trend in Hollywood may be hiring fresh new faces to take the reins of huge franchises – see Josh Trank, Marc Webb, Gareth Edwards – but again, that may not be the answer.
The film’s tone is wildly out of control, and the humor running beneath it all is not nearly as strong, as impossible as it is to top Jeff Goldberg at his most Jeff Goldbergian.
This begs the question – why not let Pratt in on the fun? Pratt proved last year in “Guardians of the Galaxy” that he can easily drop funny quip after funny quip while still maintaining his badassness as an action lead. In “World,” he spends the movie scowling, with Bryce Dallas Howard’s female heroine nipping at his heels, as he sternly and unconvincingly delivers line after line of the film’s impossibly corny serious dialogue.
Again – the true quality may not be as ancillary as it seems. I thoroughly enjoyed that moment, the 11:00 showing of “Jurassic World” on a humid Thursday night in June. I may not have even been alive when “Jurassic Park” released, but somehow I still got a small nostalgic rush seeing those dinosaurs go at it.
And this bodes well for one of my flagged films in the future. Next year, theaters will be invaded by the sequel to one of the best summer movies of all time, “Independence Day.”
As Forbes’ Scott Mendelson points out here, there are many similarities in play here. An update of a nineties special effects blockbuster, two decades later. Memorable images that could arise in marketing to awaken moviegoers’ senses. Jeff Goldblum.
Go get it Roland Emmerich.
This time around, there are dinosaurs in the dinosaur park. With trailers flaunting both this narrative development and burgeoning star Chris Pratt in the lead role, Universal kicked the marketing machine into high gear. Cue dinosaur mania.
The marketing smartly found a way to tap into the nostalgia of Spielberg’s original “Jurassic Park” (which I promise I’m done quoting) while simultaneously pretending that the sequels never happened. This way, the film grabbed the interest of older viewers while the merchandising onslaught helped to grab younger ones – can you say LEGO tie-ins?
(Sidebar: You don’t become the biggest toy company in the world without smart leadership. LEGO has smartly tied its wagon to the biggest franchises in media in the past two decades, with Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings just a few of the big themes under its belt. With Age of Ultron toys a few months ago and The Force Awakens toys coming this holiday, why not throw Jurassic World toys in there as well? I’ll tell you this: my local movie theater, located in a mall, sends many outgoing viewers through a Target. Let’s see how many families pass through the toy section and don’t get hung up on the LEGO T-Rex. And, that’s assuming they’ve already made it safely past the Lego Jurassic World video game. A friend of mine who hasn’t owned a LEGO game in years grabbed that one after seeing the movie. The power of the dino.)
Wait – where were we? Oh, the movie itself.
In the case of event films like “Jurassic World,” the quality of the movie itself gets lost. Viewers are so happy just to be there that they get high off the spectacle of the damn thing and forget if it was actually any good. The Internet gets caught up in debates that are only amplified by the movie’s popularity with the general public. Meanwhile, the business side of the film’s success quietly influences the future behind the scenes.
“Jurassic World” delivers what it needs to. The special effects are pretty, the dinosaurs look cool, and Chris Pratt stands in front of the whole thing. Also, it has a kickass ending that smartly incorporates both the franchise’s past and its present while turning a blind eye to its future. In the age of cliffhangers and post-credit scenes, this is a nice breath of fresh air.
However, I suspect it won’t hold up well to repeat viewings. While Spielberg was able to deftly shift back and forth between wonder and horror in “Jurassic Park,” new director Colin Trevorrow doesn’t quite have the same stranglehold on his craft, and it shows in “World.”
And why should he? Trevorrow had just one feature behind him coming into this powerhouse: the 2012 indie time travel dramedy “Safety Not Guaranteed.” The new trend in Hollywood may be hiring fresh new faces to take the reins of huge franchises – see Josh Trank, Marc Webb, Gareth Edwards – but again, that may not be the answer.
The film’s tone is wildly out of control, and the humor running beneath it all is not nearly as strong, as impossible as it is to top Jeff Goldberg at his most Jeff Goldbergian.
This begs the question – why not let Pratt in on the fun? Pratt proved last year in “Guardians of the Galaxy” that he can easily drop funny quip after funny quip while still maintaining his badassness as an action lead. In “World,” he spends the movie scowling, with Bryce Dallas Howard’s female heroine nipping at his heels, as he sternly and unconvincingly delivers line after line of the film’s impossibly corny serious dialogue.
Again – the true quality may not be as ancillary as it seems. I thoroughly enjoyed that moment, the 11:00 showing of “Jurassic World” on a humid Thursday night in June. I may not have even been alive when “Jurassic Park” released, but somehow I still got a small nostalgic rush seeing those dinosaurs go at it.
And this bodes well for one of my flagged films in the future. Next year, theaters will be invaded by the sequel to one of the best summer movies of all time, “Independence Day.”
As Forbes’ Scott Mendelson points out here, there are many similarities in play here. An update of a nineties special effects blockbuster, two decades later. Memorable images that could arise in marketing to awaken moviegoers’ senses. Jeff Goldblum.
Go get it Roland Emmerich.