There’s a certain kind of movie fan who remembers exactly where they were the first time they saw Jurassic Park. For some of us, it was like watching God step onto the screen in animatronic form. The T. rex wasn’t just a dinosaur—it was an awakening. And for a while, the franchise held onto that magic. Jurassic World in 2015 managed to recapture just enough of it to break box office records and make Hollywood believe that dinosaurs were back on top. But since then? It’s been a slow slide into CGI chaos, convoluted plots, and genetically engineered apathy.
So here comes Jurassic World Rebirth, stomping onto the scene in July 2025, and everyone’s wondering the same thing: can this thing actually crack a billion dollars?
On paper, it looks promising. It’s got Scarlett Johansson leading a covert ops mission, Mahershala Ali doing his intense-eyes thing, and Jonathan Bailey giving us the thinking man’s paleontologist. It’s directed by Gareth Edwards—the guy who made Godzilla 2014 and actually understood how to shoot a monster movie with scale—and written by David Koepp, the original Jurassic Park scribe himself. Spielberg’s even back as executive producer, presumably whispering “less bugs, more wonder” from the sidelines.
The plot is refreshingly simple, which in Jurassic terms is practically a miracle. A pharmaceutical company sends a team to an isolated island to extract DNA from a trio of monstrous dino mutants. Meanwhile, a shipwrecked civilian family becomes collateral damage. Cue the thunderstorm, the jungle chase, the screaming. It’s not reinventing the fossil record, but it doesn’t have to—it just needs to feel dangerous again.
And here’s the part that has Jurassic Park diehards absolutely feral: they’re finally adapting the raft sequence.
Yes, that one. The legendary scene from Michael Crichton’s original 1990 novel—cut from Spielberg’s film, ignored in the sequels, but burned into the memory of anyone who read the book in middle school and immediately became obsessed with velociraptors. It’s the chapter where Grant, Tim, and Lex escape downriver on a raft after the power goes out. They drift past herds of dinosaurs, get stalked by camouflaging raptors, run into a mating display of Dilophosaurs—and, in one of the tensest scenes Crichton ever wrote, wake up a sleeping T. rex who then swims after them.
That’s not a typo. The T. rex swims.
Lex thinks they’re safe, Tim calls her out, and then the giant lizard hauls into the river like it’s trying out for the Olympic freestyle. It’s pure nightmare fuel, and it was originally storyboarded for the ’93 film before Koepp cut it for being “redundant.” The guy literally said it felt like a guided tour past every dinosaur. Maybe in 1993, sure. But in 2025? That’s the exact kind of cinematic mayhem we’re starving for. And now, Edwards is finally giving it to us—with practical effects, water stunts, and all the jungle tension that Spielberg just didn’t have the budget (or technology) to fully deliver back then.
This isn’t just a fan-service moment. It’s a cultural reclamation project. The raft sequence has become one of those legendary “what ifs” in blockbuster history. It showed up in video games. It inspired the Universal Studios water ride. And now, 32 years later, it’s finally getting its day in the sun. That alone could put butts in seats—and a lot of them.
But let’s talk numbers, because nostalgia doesn’t pay the bills.
According to The Quorum, Rebirth leads all upcoming summer blockbusters in unaided awareness at 5%. That’s ahead of Superman, Thunderbolts, and Mission: Impossible 8. Fandango’s summer movie poll named it the most anticipated movie of 2025. That’s massive. It means people aren’t just aware of it—they’re ready to show up for it.
That’s important, because the competition is fierce. Jurassic World Rebirth opens on July 2, and James Gunn’s Superman lands just nine days later. That means if word-of-mouth on Rebirth is strong, it’s going to eat directly into Superman’s box office. That’s not just speculation—that’s positioning. And then there’s The Fantastic Four coming in at the end of July, which could dominate the family crowd if Rebirth stumbles. Three heavy-hitters in the same month? It’s a cinematic bloodbath. The box office is starting to look like the island in Jurassic Park—beautiful, chaotic, and very few survivors.
Still, the numbers don’t lie: the box office in 2025 is very much alive. Sinners, a gnarly original horror film with zero IP backing, cleared over $186 million worldwide and became one of the highest-grossing R-rated films in years. And Minecraft: The Movie opened to $157 million domestic and is still crushing it. These aren’t flukes. They’re signs. People want big-screen spectacle again, and they’re voting with their wallets.
If Rebirth delivers what it’s promising—an actual return to wonder and terror, practical dinosaurs that don’t look like glossy PlayStation cutscenes, and yes, that damn river raft sequence—then it has every reason to aim for $1 billion. The brand is strong. The marketing is firing. The ingredients are finally right.
It just has to not screw it up.
Will it get there? That depends on the quality. If the movie’s good—or even just fun in the right way—audiences will reward it. But it’s not a sure thing. We’ve been burned before. Still, if any franchise knows how to come back from extinction, it’s this one.
And if a scene that’s been missing for three decades finally helps push this franchise over the top again? That’s not just box office glory.
That’s poetic justice.
Hollywood After Dark 