Universal Plans To Launch Jurassic Park Cinematic Universe

Written by Edwin Francisco

Universal Plans to Launch Jurassic Park Cinematic Universe

Universal is taking another swing at a cinematic universe; this time it’s with Jurassic Park.

Yes, it’s a Jurassic Park cinematic universe.

This will mean a lot of characters, all of them spinning off in their own movies.

They could get the band together at some point and deal with evolving smarter dinosaurs.

In addition, this would mean more dinosaurs, showing different species.

The filmmakers could incorporate real-life scientific developments if they wanted to like dinosaurs with feathers.

It’s not hard to think why they want to do this.

After all, the Jurassic Park movies were all good for Universal.

The original book was written by Michael Crichton in 1990 and it was a bestseller.

It was so good that it inspired Steven Spielberg to make it into a live-action movie in 1993 starring Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum.

The book had cutting-edge ideas that weren’t put into the movie; regardless, the movie pushed the boundaries of how special effects worked.

It was cinematic history. With Spielberg at the helm, he made it a fun ride for everyone.

The special effects were amazing, and it still looks amazing even today.

It got a box-office record of $1 billion.

The movie was so much of a success that they wanted to push more films based on it.

It only died down after Jurassic Park 3 because of poor box-office performance.

That made Universal stop and rethink how to approach the franchise.

They restarted the franchise with 2015’s Jurassic World starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.

The sequel gained $1.6 billion globally for Universal.

The second film, 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, was no slouch either.

Critics gave mixed reviews for the movie; nevertheless, it still got $1.31 billion at the box office.

The movie still assured itself a new sequel, Jurassic World: Dominion, scheduled for a 2022 release.

I suppose the plan is just to continue a working franchise into a universe since, so far, it is selling billions per movie.

But they need to make the supporting cast built up to earn separate spin-off movies to make it work as a cinematic universe.

They can’t rely on the main stars because they do have to retire from the franchise at some point.

Crichton wrote only two books (Jurassic Park and The Lost World) in the franchise.

Both were already made into movies.

All the rest were originals; no more source materials for their stories existed except for comic books.

Universal Plans to Launch Jurassic Park Cinematic Universe

Universal Plans to Launch Jurassic Park Cinematic Universe

Image: IDW Publishing

Because of that, this universe is not going to be an easy path for Universal.

What made it work for Marvel Studios is the fact that it already had a large fan base of comic-book readers.

They had a ton of stories ready for the picking.

Their plan was slow and steady regardless of success or failure.

Marvel Studios was willing to take the risk.

Look at what happened with Universal’s Dark Universe.

Tom Cruise starred in the introductory movie, The Mummy (2017).

Consequently, it was hyped so much that there were so many expectations for it to be a success.

But it failed.

The box-office numbers were just enough to recoup the expenses they made, yet not enough to justify continuing the supposed universe.

I thought if they ever kept on doing Dark Universe movies, there is the impression that eventually people might have gotten excited by it.

It’s not impossible to make it work, though.

Universal Plans to Launch Jurassic Park Cinematic Universe

Image: Universal Studios

Universal’s Fast and the Furious franchise is not a universe, but it can be.

The main series is successful and the spin-off of Hobbs and Shaw also did well financially.

The movies did have a troubled start, but it did get more exciting when they focused on heists rather than races.

Universal can also draw characters from the Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (2020) cartoon on Netflix.

The cartoon timeline happens at the same time as the Jurassic World (2015) movie.

The show actually worked with really good ratings; it’s already in its third season.

If they can get some of the characters there to be part of the live-action movie, why not?

It can help build up their universe.

Can you imagine these cartoon characters you’ve been seeing for years, suddenly show up in real life helping Pratt and Howard?

What I do worry about is that they might have trouble keeping it interesting for the audience.

I have no concerns that Universal can make great movies; however, I do wonder if they can keep it up.

They must have a really laid-out plan and a good set of writers to get a cinematic universe to work.

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