‘Jurassic World Rebirth’ Crushes ‘F1’ Director’s $170 Million Debut at Domestic Box Office

With blockbusters such as Top Gun: Maverick and F1 on his resume, it’s easy to forget that director Joseph Kosinski made his debut with the very successful Tron: Legacy, back in 2010. The legacy sequel grossed over $400 million at the worldwide box office, but a series of unrelated mega-budget misfires prevented Disney from putting a sequel in motion for the longest time. The movie has now been overtaken at the domestic box office by the recently released blockbuster film Jurassic World Rebirth, which overtook Kosinski’s F1 on the domestic charts in its opening weekend alone.

With $174 million so far at the domestic box office, Rebirth has passed the $172 million haul that Tron: Legacy concluded its run with. Rebirth has also passed the lifetime domestic hauls of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ($171 million), the recent hit Gladiator II ($172 million), and the word-of-mouth sensation Crazy Rich Asians ($174 million). Globally, Rebirth will pass the $400 million milestone as early as today, and will overtake Tron: Legacy‘s $410 million haul before its second weekend of release. The movie earned mixed reviews, but this doesn’t seem to have affected the audience’s appetite for the long-running action-adventure franchise.

Rebirth is currently sitting at a so-so 52% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, which is in the same range as the 51% score that Tron: Legacy is holding onto. Despite this initial shrug, the movie went on to become a genuine cult hit, with praise specifically being directed at Kosinski’s visual sense, and the original score composed by Daft Punk. With a reported budget of $170 million, Tron: Legacy remains the most expensive movie to be directed by a debutante. It was primarily because films such as Mars Needs Moms, The Lone Ranger, Tomorrowland, and John Carter bombed in quick succession that it took Disney this long to green-light a sequel. Starring Jared Leto, Tron: Ares will be released later this year.

‘Rebirth’ Will Face Off Against ‘Superman’ this Weekend

Meanwhile, Kosinski’s F1 has passed the $300 million milestone, and will likely overtake Tron: Legacy in a few days. Both Rebirth and F1 will face more competition this week in the form of director James Gunn‘s Superman reboot, which is projected to gross more than Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel in its first weekend of release. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey, Rebirth is directed by Gareth Edwards. You can watch the movie in theaters, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.