Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom started its box office run on the right velociraptor foot thanks to a stellar start overseas.
The Universal Pictures film, which does not open in the U.S. until June 22, started its run as the No. 1 movie internationally. According to Variety, the film took in $151.1 million from 48 international markets and was the top-grosser of the weekend in all of them.
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Fallen Kingdom‘s biggest debut was in Korea, where it grossed $27.7 million. In the U.K. and Ireland, the film took in $19.9 million. France followed with $10 million and Spain with $9.5 million.
In the next two months, the film will open in 21 more countries. The T-rex roars in China on June 15, then Australia and Brazil on June 21. It opens in Mexico on the same day as the U.S. and opens in Japan on July 13.
Remarkably, the film has made more money from international territories than Solo: A Star Wars Story, which has been out since May 25. Solo has only made $136.1 million outside North America.
“Audiences gravitate to the nostalgia, storytelling and spectacle, and from this outstanding foundation, we are set for a lengthy international playout,” Duncan Clark, president of international distribution for Universal, said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
Fallen Kingdom hopes to cash-in on the success of Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World, which opened to an eye-popping $208.8 million in the U.S. on June 12, 2015. The film went on to make $1 billion internationally and $652.2 million in the U.S.
The new movie is also the fifth in the Jurassic Park franchise, following the original 1993 film, 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park and 2001’s Jurassic Park III.
Fallen Kingdom is set four years after Jurassic World. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard return to to save the remaining dinosaurs from a volcano on Isla Nublar. It was directed by J.A. Bayona and written by original Jurassic World writers Trevorrow and Derek Connolly. A third film is already in the works, with Treverrow directing.
Back home, Ocean’s 8, the all-female follow-up to the Ocean’s 11 trilogy, kicked Solo out of the top spot with $41.5 million. Solo came in second with $15.2 million, bringing its disappointing total to $176.1 million.
The horror film Hereditary opened with $13 million, and Hotel Artemis started with $3.2 million.
Focus Features’ Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, a documentary on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood creator Fred Rogers, cashed in on positive buzz. It grossed $470,000 from just 29 theaters.
