Dinosaurs ruled once again on Wednesday as Universal witnessed a staggering midweek debut for its big-budget franchise film Jurassic Park III which grossed a colossal $19M in its first day of release. Playing in 3,434 theaters, the Joe Johnston-directed adventure film generated the second largest Wednesday opening in history after Star Wars Episode I which debuted with a first-day gross of $28.5M in May 1999. Among overall opening days, Jurassic Park III ranks eighth trailing, among others, 1997's The Lost World which enjoyed a Friday launch of $21.6M on its way to a record three-day sum of $72.1M.

For The Phantom Menace (another high-profile franchise film opening on a non-holiday weekend), the Wednesday take represented 27% of the full five-day opening weekend gross of $105.7M. But the George Lucas epic had much more of a first-day rush from fans than Jurassic Park III. Independence Day, on the other hand, was also a heavily-hyped sci-fi actioner opening on a Wednesday in July but was not a sequel. Its $17.4M opening day represented 20% of its five-day tally of $85M, although the long weekend was helped by the Fourth of July holiday.

Regardless of how big of a bite Jurassic Park III takes out of the box office this weekend, it will certainly help boost traffic at theaters and help the marketplace rebound after a series of sluggish weeks. Plus it will allow Universal to increase its year-to-date market share significantly. The studio has bet heavily on sequels this year and has hit the jackpot with Jurassic Park III, The Mummy Returns, and Hannibal (which it co-produced with MGM), and hopes the streak will continue with next month's American Pie 2.

Last Updated : July 19, 2001 at 5:30PM EDT

Written by Gitesh Pandya