Speculation station: 2018’s most anticipated sci-fi movies
The year 2018 CE has been a fruitful one in the realm of science fiction film so far. Films like Annihilation, I Kill Giants and A Quiet Place have already set a good pace for the genre. As the calendar rolls on we look at the rest of the year's sci-fi menu to get an idea of what you might want to eat. Genetically engineered dinosaurs, Millennium Falcons and man-hunting aliens are just over the horizon, so, strap on your tin foil hats and get ready to jump to lightspeed.
Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom
Release date: June 22, 2018
The film opened on that date after a Madrid premiere the month prior. J.A. Bayona directed from a script by Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow. Chris Pratt returned as Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard reprised Claire Dearing. Jeff Goldblum came back as Ian Malcolm. Rafe Spall, James Cromwell, and BD Wong joined the ensemble. The story sends the leads to Isla Nublar to rescue dinosaurs from an erupting volcano, only for the rescue to reveal a larger plan to sell the creatures on the black market.
Other Anticipated 2018 Sci-Fi Releases
Annihilation arrived in February and earned praise for its cerebral approach and unsettling visuals. A Quiet Place followed in April and leaned into silence as a survival tactic, building tension through restraint rather than spectacle. Ready Player One opened in March with Steven Spielberg at the helm and a stack of pop-culture references. Solo: A Star Wars Story landed in May and delivered a heist-driven origin story for the cocky pilot. Each title carried different tonal registers, yet together they underscored how wide the genre stretched that year.
Box Office Performance and Commercial Impact
Fallen Kingdom opened to roughly one hundred fifty million domestically. Worldwide totals climbed past one point three billion. The film ranked third among all releases of 2018 and joined only two prior Jurassic entries that crossed the billion-dollar threshold. Audience turnout remained robust even when reviews split, confirming that dinosaur spectacle still moved tickets on a global scale.
Critical and Audience Reception
Critics landed near fifty percent on aggregate sites. Many singled out the darker palette and improved creature effects while noting that the screenplay leaned on familiar beats. Audiences proved more forgiving, posting strong exit scores and an A-minus CinemaScore. Viewers often cited the volcanic set pieces and the return of Goldblum as highlights that offset some of the narrative shortcuts.
Franchise Legacy and Sequels
The success kept the Jurassic World trilogy on track. Jurassic World Dominion arrived in 2022 and closed the arc that began with the 2015 reboot. Further expansion followed with Jurassic World Rebirth in 2025. A sequel to that entry sits in development as of 2026. The sustained box-office muscle has kept dinosaurs front and center in mainstream cinema for more than a decade, proving the franchise still carries reliable commercial weight.
Looking back, 2018 delivered a crowded slate that rewarded different tastes within science fiction. Fallen Kingdom proved the most durable earner of the bunch, yet each release added distinct texture to the year. The mix of prestige experiments and large-scale blockbusters kept the genre visible across platforms and demographics. Audiences who entered the summer expecting spectacle left with a fuller menu than the spring slate alone had promised. The results confirmed that anticipation around genetically engineered creatures and returning heroes translated into measurable attendance once the lights went down.
