From Jurassic Park to Jurassic World, which movies in the iconic franchise stand out as the best and which fall a little short?
When we think of the most important movies in Hollywood history, Jurassic Park has to be at the top of that list. The Steven Spielberg classic was based on Michael Crichton’s critically-acclaimed novel and it took the world by storm in 1993, offering up world class special effects that changed the game for cinema as it went on to become the highest-grossing movie of all time when it was released. 30 years on, it’s still regarded as a cinematic masterpiece.
It also launched one of the most famous franchises of all time, with two direct sequels and three spinoff sequels all following it in the three decades since its premiere. Its comeback in 2015 with Jurassic World added new chapters, characters, and dinosaurs to the story that saw the film series reach its biggest heights at the box office yet.
Dinosaurs may have ruled the world over 65 million years ago, but the success of the Jurassic Park franchise proves that they still rule the movie scene. And even though its most recent chapter has come to an end for now, something tells us the dinos will be back on the big screen sooner rather than later.
It’s an exciting time to be a fan of the franchise. Not only did the original Jurassic Park turn 30 years old, we’re getting a new video game set immediately after the first movie. Better yet, the Jurassic World franchise will continue via new upcoming Netflix animated series Chaos Theory. So while the creatives behind the movies figure out their next step, there is still plenty to enjoy from the saga.
On that note, let’s take this opportunity to celebrate one of the most game-changing films of all time and the franchise it spawned by looking back on the six cinematic entries in the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchises, and ranking them.