Jurassic World Rebirth is another successful installment in the 32-year-old franchise, but that doesn’t guarantee Jurassic World 5 will be a hit. It’s impressive how profitable the franchise has been since Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic. The Jurassic World trilogy turned the series into a worldwide juggernaut, with each film grossing over $1 billion despite mixed reviews for the last two.
Rebirth continues the franchise’s success, becoming one of the biggest hits of 2025. While it may not reach $1 billion, it’s currently made around $777 million worldwide on a $180 million budget. That’s enough for Universal to make a nice profit, and shows that audiences will still show up to watch all the dinosaur carnage.
However, after the dust settles, the studio needs to consider what’s next for this series. The film did perform well, but it received mixed reactions from critics and audiences, continuing an unfortunate trend from the previous trilogy. Rebirth‘s box office is slightly worse than the previous film, suggesting the franchise could be headed toward extinction if it doesn’t change course.
Jurassic World Rebirth’s Reception Spells Trouble For The Franchise
The first Jurassic World was a blockbuster hit and the best-received film by critics and audiences since the original. It led to a resurgence in popularity for the franchise, leading to profits outside the films. Jurassic merchandise and theme park rides popped up at Universal parks all over the world as the series started to become an entire universe.
However, while the brand’s success soared, the quality started to diminish. Following the 2015 film, each subsequent sequel performed worse with critics, leading to an overall dissatisfying trilogy. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom received a 47% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, while Dominion performed even worse with a 29%.
Jurassic World Rebirth is now available to rent or buy on VOD.
Dominion did perform better with audiences than Fallen Kingdom, but they were largely considered disappointments after the crowd-pleasing first film. Rebirth currently holds a 51% critic score, which is better than the previous two films, but still underwhelming. However, it performed worse with audiences, scoring a B CinemaScore, while the last two both received an A-.
Rebirth‘s box office results also follow a franchise trend. Jurassic World made $1.6 billion, Fallen Kingdom made $1.3 billion, and Dominion made $1.001 billion. While it’s impressive that each film joined the billion-dollar club, they each dropped around $300 million, showing the franchise is experiencing diminishing returns.
Rebirth is expected to finish its box office run at around $850-$900 million. It won’t drop as much as the previous films, but it will likely fail to reach $1 billion, continuing the trend of each film performing worse than the last. Based on the audience and critic scores, Rebirth also failed to revitalize any passion in the franchise, suggesting the trend won’t end here.
Jurassic World 5 Must Avoid Repeating Rebirth’s Lukewarm Reception
Image via Universal Pictures
There is still interest in the Jurassic World franchise, but it’s fading. People will always enjoy movies where dinosaurs eat people and cause chaos. However, the consistently lower box office returns for the franchise show that the audience base for these films is getting smaller. If Jurassic doesn’t create better-received films, it could follow patterns that have plagued other franchises.
One example of this is Transformers. It was once a mega-franchise, with several films like Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction in the billion-dollar club. However, Age of Extinction was so poorly received that it might have killed the franchise. 2017’s The Last Knight and 2018’s Bumblebee made significantly less than Extinction, and Transformers: One flopped, despite strong reviews.
The same thing happened to the Fast & Furious franchise. Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious both crossed the billion-dollar mark, but F9 and Fast X underperformed. Both films didn’t receive great reviews, meaning Fast 11 may not be a huge hit once it eventually premieres. It also doesn’t help that these films have astronomical budgets.
Two of the biggest franchises that are suffering from lukewarm receptions are Marvel and DC. Marvel was once the king of cinema, but it’s struggled to hold that consistency since Avengers: Endgame. While it has had a few hits, it’s also had some exceptional bombs, like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels.
DC lost so much of its audience that it had to kill off its DCEU and completely reboot as the DCU. 2023 was a disastrous year for the studio, as Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and Blue Beetle all bombed at the box office. Fortunately, Superman is performing well and may have changed the direction of this franchise.
Based on previous franchise trends, the Jurassic series needs to turn things around with its next film, especially for domestic audiences. Much of Rebirth‘s box office comes from international audiences, such as China, which isn’t as reliable as it used to be. Jurassic World 5 could be another hit, but only if it offers something fresh that proves there’s still a reason for viewers to keep watching.
