Why Isn’t “Jurassic World Renaissance” with Scarlett Johansson Releasing on a Wednesday?

In France, Wednesday has been the traditional day for movie releases since 1972, coinciding with the shift of schoolchildren’s weekly day off from Thursday to Wednesday. This change led distributors and theater owners to choose this day to capture the family audience looking to entertain their kids during their free time. A Wednesday release also allows a film to benefit from word-of-mouth promotion leading up to the weekend.

However, France is one of the few countries that prefer Wednesday; countries like the United States and the United Kingdom typically select Friday as their opening day for new movies in theaters.

Notable Exceptions

French distributors sometimes make exceptions to this rule. For instance, in 2024, Pathé plans to release “The Count of Monte Cristo” on Friday, June 28, to align with the Cinema Festival and capitalize on the positive buzz surrounding the film starring Pierre Niney. This strategy proved successful as the film drew nearly 10 million viewers. This year, the distributor has again chosen a Friday release, on June 27, for Martin Bourboulon’s “13 Days, 13 Nights.” This week, Universal has decided to release the new installment of the Jurassic World series on a Friday as well.

Why is Jurassic World Releasing on a Friday?

Initially scheduled for a Wednesday, July 2 release in France and a Friday, July 4 release in the United States, Jurassic World: Renaissance had its French release date shifted to Friday. Contacted by our team, Universal Pictures explained that this was part of an international strategy to launch the film by Gareth Edwards on July 4.

This date is particularly significant as it coincides with Independence Day in the United States, a powerful symbol that the studio wants to leverage for a global event-like release of Jurassic World. Moreover, the holiday weekend is historically one of the busiest times for American movie theaters.

Interestingly, due to the long holiday weekend, the film starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali was actually released earlier, on July 2, in American theaters! For once, American audiences had the opportunity to see the film before French audiences.

This marketing strategy clearly has financial benefits: by aligning the global release around July 4, Universal maximizes the impact on the box office during the first weekend, typically the highest in terms of cinema attendance.

This new chapter, independent of Colin Trevorrow’s last trilogy, unfolds five years after “The World After.” The Earth’s ecology has become largely inhospitable for the dinosaurs. The remaining dinosaurs inhabit isolated equatorial environments with climates similar to those they once thrived in.

Zora Bennett (Scarlett Johansson), a specialist in covert operations, leads a team on a highly secretive mission to secure the genetic material of three dinosaurs, key to a miraculous cure that could potentially save humanity.

Jurassic World: Renaissance debuts in theaters this Friday, July 4, with numerous sneak previews scheduled across France for eager fans.