LOS ANGELES - Timing is everything.
Universal Pictures is poised for its most profitable year ever after a string of blockbusters that have surpassed expectations. This weekend, the movie “Jurassic World” rampaged across the globe, scoring the biggest opening of all time with $524 million in tickets sold worldwide.
The studio has racked up more than $3 billion in global ticket sales, and is outpacing all of its Hollywood rivals. And it reached that milestone faster than any studio, thanks to big hits such as “Furious 7,” “Fifty Shades of Grey,” both of which also have grossed more than $500 million in worldwide receipts, and the plucky “Pitch Perfect 2.”
“We are having a very good year,” said Nick Carpou, president of domestic distribution at Universal Pictures. “It’s an embarrassment of riches.”
But this is a year that almost wasn’t.
Three of those films - “Jurassic World,” “Furious 7” and “Fifty Shades” - were initially scheduled to run in 2014. Various circumstances _ a tragedy, creative considerations and a heavy dose of strategic marketing _ bumped them to this year’s slate.
When “Fast and Furious” star Paul Walker died in a car crash in 2013, midway through shooting the latest installment, the production was thrown into limbo. Filmmakers wrestled with their emotions and whether even to finish the picture.
Early in the production on “Jurassic World,” executive producer Steven Spielberg decided the film, which relies heavily on computer-generated dinosaurs, would benefit from another year of work. Studio executives acquiesced to Spielberg, who directed the 1993 original “Jurassic Park.”
With “Fifty Shades,” Universal’s marketing team lobbied for the Valentine’s Day weekend release date, figuring that was their best chance to boost the film’s box-office prospects. Men, who otherwise might recoil at watching a steamy romance film, would allow their girlfriend or spouse to select the movie. Their strategy worked.
Even the Comcast-owned studio’s next potential blockbuster, “Minions,” was first scheduled to run last December. The spinoff of the hugely successful “Despicable Me” franchise was delayed until July 10 to make room for a massive rollout of toys and other products.
Chance certainly played a part in Universal’s blockbuster year. But analysts point out that the studio still needed a strong hand of cards to play _ and now it’s cashing in.
“It’s just a matter of getting as much money from the table as they can,” said analyst Phil Contrino of BoxOffice.com. “You’re talking about well-paid executives being very strategic about how they place, how they market and how they make these films.”
When the final weekend box-office receipts were tallied Monday, the movie stunned the industry by setting a domestic record with $208.8 million during its first three days, with nearly half of that coming from 3-D screenings.
The huge haul boosted Universal past the $1 billion mark in domestic box-office receipts and into the No. 1 spot among studios with 21.5 percent of the market, according to data firm Rentrak. Universal crossed that threshold in record time, beating the previous record that was set in 2008 when Paramount Pictures released “Iron Man” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”
It might still be a tight race by year-end to see which studio comes out on top. Warner Bros. currently is No. 2 with $967 million and 20 percent market share, and Walt Disney is third with $882 million and 18.2 percent of the market.
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