‘Jurassic World’ chows down at the weekend box office

“Jurassic World” drove the rest of the weekend’s box office contenders into extinction.

The revived-dinosaurs action flick, the fourth in the popular franchise that began in the 1990s under Steven Spielberg, pulled in an estimated $82.8 million on Friday night, the third-biggest Friday opening in history.

The Universal Pictures film, directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, had been estimated to have a $100-million opening weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. But now those estimates are rising quickly. Some new expectations now vary from $180 million to north of $190 million for the three-day haul.

Only “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -- Part 2” had a better Friday night run. Depending on its Saturday take, its weekend haul could be good for either the third- or second-biggest opening weekend of all time.

The huge Friday comes after a successful Thursday late-night tally for “Jurassic World” as well. The movie chomped down on $18.5 million in ticket sales at 3,299 U.S. theaters.

Nothing else came remotely close to that take over Friday night, with previous releases filling out the remaining top slots.

Melissa McCarthy’s action-comedy “Spy” came in second with just under $4.8 million, followed by the blow-up-L.A. disaster thriller “San Andreas” at $3.1 million. Behind them, the creepfest “Insidious: Chapter 3” pulled in just under $2.7 million and the a cappella comedy “Pitch Perfect 2” crooned its way to $2 million to round out the Friday night top 5.

The leviathan-sized opening proves there’s still huge interest in the franchise, whose last film, “Jurassic Park 3,” came out in 2001. Audiences loved “Jurassic World,” giving it an 87% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, even if the critics were slightly more cold-blooded, giving it a still-toutable 71% on the site.

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