It’s fair to say that the next installment of the rebooted Jurassic World franchise looks epic but, whether it can outdo its hugely successful predecessor is another question. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is set for release on June 11th but, for it to be more commercially successful than Jurassic World, it will have to rake in $1.7 billion worldwide. The 2015 offering is the fourth-highest grossing movie of all time and was somewhat of a shock success. The new title from Universal Pictures will come out to a ready-made audience who enjoy the various titles in the ever-expanding Jurassic franchise though and, for this reason, has a chance to usurp its predecessor.
Jurassic World Franchise Set to Get Even Bigger
The success of 2015’s Jurassic World from Colin Trevorrow sprouted a large number of games and other merchandise to draw more people into the franchise. Crossing into other platforms such as console gaming and iGaming can be a sure-fire way to boost audience figures, and is a tried and tested method employed by other franchises such as Tomb Raider.
An updated version of Jurassic Park Builder came out for iOS shortly before the 2015 cinematic reboot was released to help with promotion. Jurassic World: The Game was developed by Ludia, and it put players in the position of being in charge of the theme park on Isla Nublar. Lego Jurassic World from Traveller’s Tales was released at the same time as the 2015 movie, and the popular puzzle game was made available across numerous platforms including Xbox and PlayStation. To attract players in the booming online casino industry, Microgaming released a Jurassic World slot which was a follow up to their award-winning Jurassic Park offering. In addition to all of these games, there was a title in development called Jurassic World Survivor. This was cancelled, though, after developers Cryptic Studios had to close their Seattle location.
In anticipation of the new installment of the rebooted series, there will be yet more games designed to widen the film’s appeal to a larger audience base. Jurassic World Evolution from Frontier Games is a business simulation video game for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows which is set to be released at exactly the same time as Fallen Kingdom. Players construct their own Jurassic World style theme park with the ability to also create their own dinosaurs. The game will be narrated by returning franchise star Jeff Goldblum. Universal also announced that there would be a Pokémon Go-style game for mobile called Jurassic World Alive. Players will be able to collect dinosaurs and pit them against one another in battle, as well as make their own species using hybrid DNA.
What Can We Expect From the New Installment?
With the franchise already massive, there should be a vast number of returning viewers when Fallen Kingdom hits screens this summer. However, if it is going to break the records set by Jurassic World, it will also need to garner a strong critical response. The 2015 reboot earned a fairly impressive score of 71 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and J.A Bayona will be confident that this can be beaten.
The latest dinosaur romp does have some other factors working its favor that should help to pull in mass audiences. One of these is the return of Chris Pratt as Owen Grady, who was a major hit in the last adventure. Pratt has rapidly risen to the level of Hollywood A-lister in recent years, and he now has the same kind of pulling power as the likes of Johnny Depp. Fans of the original films will also be extremely excited to see the return of Goldblum, who was loved for providing the humor in the original Jurassic Park.
There is a slight risk that the change of director may have an adverse effect on the latest offering from Universal Pictures. Trevorrow has been credited with successfully taking the reins from the legendary Steven Spielberg and putting his own spin on the franchise. The 41-year-old has co-written the new installment alongside Derek Connolly, but Bayona has taken his seat in the director’s chair. Many will also remember how The Lost World: Jurassic Park fell massively short of Jurassic Park in terms of box office revenue. The 1993 original made $914 million worldwide on its debut release, while the 1997 sequel only pulled in $618 million.
The Jurassic World franchise is much stronger now than it was in the 1990’s, and the fact that it has branched out into games on various devices should help to encourage people to watch the new film. Whether it manages to outdo its predecessor will likely come down to the quality of the storyline and the critical response.
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