Jurassic World Is The Most Successful Legacy Sequel Ever

“Jurassic Park III” hit theaters in the summer of 2001 and, at the time, it was a gigantic commercial disappointment, taking in just $368 million worldwide, far below that of its predecessors. Not to mention that making the movie was an incredibly messy endeavor. The easy read of this is that the third entry killed the franchise for quite some time, but that’s not exactly the case. As it happens, Steven Spielberg hatched plans for some version of “Jurassic Park 4” dating all the way back to 2001. And, not to exhaust you all with the details, but a great many versions of the film that could have been were cooked up before we got to “Jurassic World” as it exists.

William Monahan (“The Departed”) was the first screenwriter to get a crack at JP4, but he would be far from the last, Most famously, John Sayles (“Lone Star”) penned a version of the film that would have been absolutely bonkers, as it would have included dinosaur/human hybrids, as was confirmed via some leaked concept art several years back. Many details from this script have made their way online over the years but, primarily, it illustrates just how lost in development this movie truly was.

“Jurassic Park” was a contained story, and “The Lost World” took us to Site B, where the dinosaurs were nurtured before being moved to the main island. We even saw a T-rex terrorizing San Francisco. “Jurassic Park III” took a scaled-down approach with mixed results. From a financial standpoint, it’s easy to understand why Universal and Spielberg wanted to solider on. But, from a creative point of view, it was clearly difficult to find a way in. That is, until time caught up with the notion of revisiting the past.