Jurassic World 2 boasts the biggest budget in the franchise, but despite that has almost broke even before it opens in the United States. While the film opens in the U.S. on June 22, it has already made over $150 million at the international box office.

The budget of Jurassic World 2 was originally reported to be $260 million, over $100 million more than Jurassic World. However, this was refuted by the producers and Box Office Mojo now reports that the film’s budget is $170 million, only $20 million more than the original.

While $170 million is significantly lower than initial reports, it still makes Jurassic World 2 the most expensive Jurassic film to date. All Jurassic film budgets are given below, including both the production cost at the time and the cost adjusted for inflation:

  • Jurassic Park (1993): $63 million (adjusted: $109.76 million) Jurassic Park 2 (1997): The Lost World: $73 million (adjusted: $114.72 million) Jurassic Park 3 (2001): $93 million (adjusted: $132.82 million) Jurassic World (2015): $150 million (adjusted: $158.69 million) Jurassic World 2: Fallen Kingdom (2018): $170 million

Like many other film franchises, the film’s budgets become incrementally bigger, both because of inflation and a desire to expand on previous films.  Jurassic World 2’s increase in budget is part of a larger trend that began with The Lost World.

Earlier this year, Solo: A Star Wars Story’s extensive reshoots caused its budget to balloon to $250+ million, making it the most expensive Star Wars film of all time. It looks less and less likely that Solo will earn back its gigantic budget at the domestic box office. In contrast, Jurassic World 2’s $170 million budget has easily been earned back at the international box office, signaling that the film will have a successful run despite mixed reviews. Already, the film is being celebrated as a commercial success.

But would Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom be heralded as a success if its budget had been $260 million like Solo? The higher budget would have at the very least put more pressure and scrutiny on the film’s performance. Jurassic World 2 is hardly a low-budget film like recent successes like A Quiet Place (with an estimated budget of $20 million) or Get Out (estimated budget $4.5 million), but if film producers compare the performances of Jurassic World 2 and Solo, they may take away an important lesson for future films: even blockbusters can benefit from a tighter budget.

The original Jurassic World brought in a $208 million in its opening weekend and grossed a total of $1.67 billion dollars worldwide. Jurassic World 2 may not match those numbers, but it’s at least off to a strong start.

More: Hollywood’s Box Office Problems Are Its Own Fault

Source: Box Office Mojo

  • Jurassic World 2 Release Date: 2018-06-22