Jurassic World easily won the weekend box office to become the highest global opening box office of all time and the second biggest opening domestically. A bunch of scientists are upset about the film’s inaccuracies, but audiences don’t really expect a history lesson with their summer popcorn flicks. I didn’t make it to the theater this weekend but hope to eventually watch Chris Pratt and the raptors. He did well on the press tour and completely refrained from making degrading remarks about any of his co-stars. Pratt took to Facebook after dollar amounts hit the internet: “On behalf of everyone involved in the making of ?#?JurassicWorld?, and believe me there are thousands of us, I want to say thank you … Thank you, thank you, thank you!” How big was opening weekend? Dinosized:

Obliterating all expectations, Universal’s Jurassic World roared to a record $204.6 million debut in North America and $511.8 million globally, rescuing the action-adventure franchise from the brink of extinction 22 years after Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park first hit theaters.

The $150 million tentpole, bestowed with an A CinemaScore, proves that dinosaurs are every bit as potent as superheroes: Jurassic World’s estimated weekend bests the $191.3 million launch of sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron last month to bite off the No. 2 domestic opening of all time, almost matching the $207.4 million launch of The Avengers in May 2012.

Globally, the movie posted the largest weekend bow in history, eclipsing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 ($483.2 million) and becoming the first film to ever cross $500 million in one weekend, thanks to an international haul of $307.2 million from 66 markets, the second-biggest foreign opening after Deathly Hallows 2 ($314 million).

“This is absolutely a four-quadrant movie and is working on so many levels. The release date was awesome, and everybody stayed off of our date,” said Universal domestic distribution chief Nick Carpou.

[From Hollywood Reporter]

This movie was always going to be a hit, but Universal is thrilled to see it overperform. And why not? Men (and women) want to see the action. Women (and men) want to see Pratt. Everyone loves raptors, and the nostalgia factor pulls in older moviegoers and their kids, who watched the movies years after the fact. Expectations were for $125 million in North America, but audiences arrived in much greater numbers. This movie easily wiped the 2nd place domestic opening weekend record of Age of Ultron, and some analysts believe final weekend results could surpass the first Avengers and take top prize.

Universal is holding tight before announcing more Jurassic, but it should happen. Pratt spoke to Entertainment Weekly about his love for the original films. He feels like it’s “fate” to star in this film. Pratt also said he’s signed up for sequels: “They have me for I think 38 movies or something.” His planned Hollywood exit won’t be happening for a long time.

Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures