The Jurᴀssic World franchise registered another box office victory with Jurᴀssic World Rebirth in July, once again proving that there appears to be no end in sight for the 32-year-old dinosaur-centric franchise. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali, Jurᴀssic World Rebirth acted as a soft reboot for the franchise, introducing a fresh cast and new narrative.

Rebirth brought the franchise back to its more streamlined story roots, focusing on two small groups trapped on an island full of dangerous dinosaurs and powerful mutant hybrids instead of the globe-spanning action adventure narrative that the previous Jurᴀssic World trilogy evolved into.

That return to the franchise’s roots made up some ground with critics after the abysmal Rotten Tomatoes scores of the series’ last two entries, but in reality critics’ opinions have never had an impact on the success of the Jurᴀssic Park/Jurᴀssic World franchise. As long as the movies include plenty of dinosaur screen time, audiences are on board to check them out on the big screen.

The Jurᴀssic World trilogy immediately returned to the “park” concept before eventually going so far down the nostalgia rabbit hole as to bring back the original movie’s cast. That meant that Rebirth‘s setup with no park, a new island, a new cast, and only the vaguest remnants of plot baggage from its predecessors was a legitimate risk for the franchise’s future if it didn’t work.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth Is Another Huge Box Office Hit For The Franchise

Universal Pictures’ proverbial roll of the dice with Jurᴀssic World Rebirth certainly paid off, as the summer blockbuster was a huge box office success, just as the entire Jurᴀssic World trilogy was. Currently sitting at well beyond $740 million after less than a month in theaters, Jurᴀssic World Rebirth could still threaten $1 billion at the global box office depending on its legs.

Even if it left theaters today, it would be considered a financial success, given that its lower budget (low for the Jurᴀssic World franchise, at least) means it needs to hit a much lower benchmark for profitability. Jurᴀssic World Rebirth needed to churn out at least $500-$550 million at the box office to turn a real profit, and it blew well past that mark in just a few weeks.

The movie’s strong opening was certainly buoyed by positive early reviews from both critics and moviegoers. Even if the actual critical consensus settled much lower than what one would normally consider good, the bar was so low after Jurᴀssic World: Dominion that any word of mouth declaring Rebirth “watchable” or better was enough to send people to the theaters.

Jurᴀssic Movies Will Keep Coming As Long As Audiences Want Them

If something as experimental in structure as Jurᴀssic World Rebirth is still able to churn out $800-$900 million in a summer in which it goes head-to-head with F1: The Movie, Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, then the dinosaurs will simply never die. It’s

As long as Universal can stomach the initial budget and turn a legitimate profit, then writers will find a way to keep sending people to islands loaded with dinosaurs and genetic experiments. The concept simply works for audiences, even if it is in a “turn your brain off and enjoy” sort of fashion. Like any average grade-schooler, people are still fascinated by real dinosaurs.

The appeтιтe simply hasn’t faded, and likely won’t any time soon. Universal smartly put the dinos on ice after the train wreck of Jurᴀssic Park III, but all that time off did was create more interest in the franchise. The Jurᴀssic World trilogy, as over-wrought as it wound up, simplified the formula into “dinosaurs + bankable action star = box office success”.

Jurᴀssic World Rebirth basically put that formula to the test, swapping out Chris Pratt for franchise cornerstone-level veteran Scarlett Johansson and putting some new dinosaurs into the mix in a fresh yet familiar setting. It all but proved that people will still show up for the Jurᴀssic World franchise no matter what happens.

By the end of Jurᴀssic World Rebirth‘s box office run, it’s likely that it will have cracked the top 10 highest-grossing movie franchises of all time, with well over $2.2 billion to its credit. With profitability at that level, Universal would almost be silly NOT to wring the sponge until it’s dry, and that’s what the franchise’s future holds.

We will continue to get Jurᴀssic World movies until they stop making mᴀssive profits. That’s simply the nature of the business in this day and age, and Jurᴀssic World Rebirth stands as the latest example of why the franchise isn’t going anywhere any time soon.