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Deadline’s Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament took a hiatus during the pandemic as movie theaters closed for the majority of 2020-2021 and theatrical day-and-date titles on both the big screen and studios’ respective streaming platforms became more prevalent. Coming back from that brink, the studios have largely returned to their theatrical release models and the downstream monies they can bring. Not to mention their power in launching IPs around the world with big global marketing campaigns. When it comes to evaluating the financial performance of top movies, it isn’t about what a film grosses at the box office. The true tale is told when production budgets, P&A, talent participations and other costs collide with box office grosses, and ancillary revenues from VOD to DVD and TV. To get close to that mysterious end of the equation, Deadline is repeating our Most Valuable Blockbuster tournament for 2022, using data culled by seasoned and trusted sources.
THE FILM
Jurassic World Dominion
Universal/Amblin
Jurassic World Dominion was the first Hollywood studio production in the UK to return to shooting after shutting down due to Covid in mid-March 2020 — that first closure came within weeks after filming commenced on February 25 that year. Production resumed in in July 2020 only to pause again in October due to a Covid outbreak among crew, but in the end, after 18 months of production and 40,000 Covid tests, it was well worth Universal’s sweat in a movie that earned $1 billion worldwide — one of only three 2022 theatrical releases to do so last year after Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water. (The pic’s theatrical release was pushed from June 2021 to June 2022 to ensure it would thrive in a restored global moviegoing global marketplace.) The first Jurassic World director, Colin Trevorrow, was brought back to direct this finale, which teamed the new franchise’s cast of Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard with the Jurassic Park team of Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Sam Neil. The last sequel, 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, under filmmaker J.A. Bayona, was deemed too dark by critics at 47% on Rotten Tomatoes and fans with an A- CinemaScore, down from Jurassic World‘s 71% and A. Dominion did worse with critics at 29% Rotten, but moviegoers coming back to a tentpole-filled summer at theaters showed they still loved dinosaurs with an A- and spending $376.8M domestic and $625.1M international including China.
THE BOX SCORE
THE BOTTOM LINE
Our sources peg production costs at $185M net, which includes $6M-$8M in extra Covid protocols by the studio. Universal’s policy for movies that open to north of $50M stateside is a 31-day theatrical window before they land in the homes on Premium VOD. While Amblin has a pay-one window with Showtime, Dominion was excluded from that deal, instead streaming both an extended and original cut on NBCUniversal’s Peacock service beginning September 2. The $160M global streaming/TV monies include what the studio paid itself to put Dominion through the first part of the Peacock window, followed by a subsequent one on Amazon’s Prime Video. Sources factor $80M in participations to cast, filmmaker and producers (in particular Steven Spielberg, an EP here, who has a really rich producing deal with Amblin). It’s also important to note that in the wake of Covid and China banning several U.S. films to prioritize its own local fare, Dominion was one of the few Hollywood movies to break through in the that market, earning $157.5M. Net profit here is $229.7M.