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‘Jurassic’ Sets Box Office Record

Dinosaurs ruled the weekend box office with “Jurassic World” from NBCUniversal Inc. bringing in more than $209 million to make it the highest-grossing domestic opening weekend ever. The fourth installment of Universal Pictures prehistoric creature franchise managed to beat out the $207 million grossed by “The Avengers,” the Marvel superhero movie released in 2012. It easily bested “The Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the previous high grosser of this summer movie season that brought in $191 million in its opening weekend in May. Both “Avengers” films were released by Walt Disney Co. in Burbank. “Jurassic World” was co-financed and co-produced by Legendary Entertainment, the Burbank production company. Legendary’s arrangement with Universal will give it a 25 percent cut of the box office receipts, according to Variety, the entertainment industry trade publication. The dinosaur thriller is the first hit for Legendary since ending a long-time distribution relationship with Warner Bros. Entertainment in 2013 and hooking up with Universal in Universal City. While Legendary’s low-budget “As Above/So Below” released last fall made money, two recent high-profile releases, “Blackhat” and “Seventh Son,” lost money. Variety reported in February that Legendary took a $90 million write-down on “Blackhat,” released in January. The prospects for “Seventh Son” were so poor that Legendary took an $85 million write-down on the film prior to its February release.

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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