One of Universal’s tentpole Summer 2025 releases is “Jurassic World: Rebirth”, which opens nationwide on Wednesday July 2nd. Ever since Steven Spielberg directed the original, visually groundbreaking “Jurassic Park” in 1993 (which was re-released in IMAX 3D in 2013, which is how I saw it for the first time), the studio can’t get enough of this brand, incorporating it into their theme parks and spinning it off into DreamWorks / Netflix and LEGO / Nickelodeon animated shows.
Of course, there are the other movies. 1997’s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” didn’t have quite the box office heights of the first film but still made an impact, as did 2001’s “Jurassic Park III”. Then in 2015, “Jurassic World” took movie theaters by storm with a monstrous $653 million domestically and nearly $1.7 Billion worldwide. Incredible. Like with the first trilogy, the totals of the Chris Pratt-led follow-ups kept decreasing, but both 2018’s “Fallen Kingdom” ($1.3B globally) and 2022’s “Dominion” ($1B around the world) still did well.
So here comes another revival. “Jurassic World: Rebirth” stars two-time Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson and two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali. Jonathan Bailey from “Wicked” (who earned a SAG Awards Best Supporting Actor nomination), Rupert Friend and Ed Skrein are also part of the cast. The Dinos are back. So is David Koepp, who co-wrote the original and penned “The Lost World”. “Rebirth” is directed by Gareth Edwards. I liked his 2014 “Godzilla” for the most part. 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” was only just okay. And 2023’s “The Creator”, which was up for two Oscars and won *five* Visual Effects Society Awards, was quite overdramatic and over the top.
Johansson has said in many interviews that she’s been a lifelong fan of the “Jurassic” saga. And Ali tends to pick very interesting and effective projects (except for 2023’s “Leave the World Behind”), so I’m cautiously optimistic. Hopefully it doesn’t feel generic, dull or too similar to the other installments. And when it comes to the box office, Universal is banking on at least another billion.