In the war to rebound back at the movie theaters since the pandemic hit, Universal becomes the first studio to pass $3 billion dollars at the global box office this year — and its the first studio to do so at all since 2019. Deadline reported the news and it is shocking given the success of films like Top Gun: Maverick (which is a Paramount film) and Spider-Man: No Way Home from Marvel Studios, but with Jurassic World: Dominion reaching $974.5M globally (with a breakdown of $601.4M internationally and $373.1M domestically), the dino-sized threequel certainly helped push Universal over the edge.
Currently, the only other titles in 2022 to make it over the $500 million mark internationally have been Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, The Batman, and Top Gun: Maverick. Alongside Jurassic World: Dominion, Minions: The Rise of Gru has grossed $790.4M globally which has helped to push the studio further into the winning slot.
Universal also had the success of Jordan Peele‘s latest film to give it that extra edge over other studios. Nope, which stars Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, brought both fans of Peele as well as general horror buffs into theaters and it was the kind of movie that you didn’t want to miss. And for good reason, Peele’s films keep audiences on the edge of their seats and engaged in the theater-going experience.
What this shows however is that it seems as if Universal has been constantly putting out movies this year. On top of Nope, Jurassic World: Dominion, and Minions: The Rise of Gru, the company also released Scott Derrickson‘s The Black Phone starring Ethan Hawke which added $152.7M globally to their total. They also had the DreamWorks film The Bad Guys come out this year with a total of $246.8M globally, and it’s an oddly good example of how putting more things out wields higher totals rather than relying on a smaller pool of films.
It’s not as if the other distributors are hurting too much or that far behind. They’ve had their successes to bring in massive totals but with a larger collection of films out and bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars with each global release, it all adds up in Universal’s favor very quickly. So yes, it is strange to stop and think about Universal films and what movies they released versus the big hits of the summer like Top Gun: Maverick and Thor: Love and Thunder but then again, never underestimate the Minions.