Thursday night success for Jurassic World

As a footnote to my review of Jurassic World, it appears from the Thursday-night sessions in the US that the movie is headed for sit-up-and-take-notice success at the box office - see this article at Box Office Mojo. An estimate of US$18.5 million for a Thursday night is appropriately monstrous, especially if this fourth instalment of the Jurassic Park franchise turns out to have staying power.

Perhaps all those years in development hell were helpful to Jurassic World. The franchise was declining at the time of the previous movie, and a fourth outing for the dinosaurs might have done badly around, say, 2005. Instead, the passage of time has made Jurassic World something special, allowed a few reinvigorating ideas to bubble up, and opened the way for a new cast of characters/actors. There's a buzz that I can't imagine would have been the case a decade ago, when the formula was getting tired.