New Delhi: Jurassic World, the fourth instalment of the American science fiction adventure film around dinosaurs, made the third largest weekend opening for any international film in India with a box office collection of ₹ 46 crore.

The top two grossers include the Paul Walker and Vin Diesel starrer Fast and Furious 7 released on 2 April and Avengers:Age of Ultron that hit Indian theatres on 24 April.

Fast and Furious collected ₹ 70 crore on the first weekend, while the American superhero film Avengers: Age of Ultron made ₹ 49.9 crore in its opening weekend.

Part of the popular Hollywood movie franchise Jurassic Park (released in 1994), Jurassic World is produced by Legendary Pictures and Amblin Entertainment at the cost of $150 million. The film, set in a dinosaur theme park, was released across 2,082 screens in India on 12 June by Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures.

“Surely, there are indicators that the film has long legs," said Sarabjit Singh, general manager, Universal Pictures India International. “What we’ve seen over the weekend is a large number of family audiences flocking to the screens. This is the true sequel to the first Jurassic Park. Young teenagers who would recall the 1994 release would have now enjoyed this film as young parents," said Singh.

India’s largest movie exhibitor PVR Ltd said the film was a hit comparable to the size and scale of the other two Hollywood films. “The film has done really well both in Hindi and English. This is the third big hit this year. Footfalls are high across small centres and large metros," said Kamal Giachandani, chief executive, PVR Pictures. Overall box office collections for Fast and Furious 7 in India stood at ₹ 157 crore while Avengers: Age of Ultron garnered ₹ 105 crore.

To be sure, these numbers seem small when compared with Hindi films such as Happy New Year starring Shahrukh Khan, and PK starring Aamir Khan, which garnered opening weekend collections of ₹ 108 crore and ₹ 95.21 crore, respectively, in India. Although Hollywood films have a lesser reach than Hindi films in India, their appeal is growing. “Hollywood films are defnitely increasing reach in India by leaps and bounds. Multi-language releases in Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu help expand its territory in India," said trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

Jurassic World has had a robust opening globally as well, grossing $500 million worldwide in a single weekend, according to a news report by The Wall Street Journal. In the US and Canada, the film clocked $204.6 million, while overseas collections add up to $307.2 million. China accounted for $100.8 million of the international grosses, said the report.

The film stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and Indian actor Irrfan Khan, who plays Simon Masrani, the chief executive officer of Masrani Corporation that owns Jurassic World.

The fourth film after The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III was initially set to begin production in 2004 for a summer 2005 release. But it endured over a decade of development hell as scheduled release dates were pushed back several times while the script went through revisions.

The upcoming releases for Universal Pictures include American comedy Ted 2 later this month and animated comedy Minions in July.

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