All 7 Jurassic Park Movies In Order, From 1993 To Now

The Jurassic Park franchise spans four decades and seven movies, and each installment has raised the stakes with more and more dinosaur mayhem. Author Michael Crichton penned the eponymous novel in 1990, and it didn’t take long for Hollywood to come calling. Steven Spielberg directed the first movie, and it was a paradigm shift in blockbuster cinema.

Combining cutting-edge CGI with practical effects wizardry, Jurassic Park‘s dinosaurs are still impressive today. Add on top Spielberg’s distinct eye for storytelling, and the debut film in the franchise is a classic. It was one of the biggest films of the ’90s, so sequels were bound to follow. In four years’ time, The Lost World: Jurassic Park hit theaters.

The next huge shift in the franchise came two decades later, when it was given a soft reboot in Jurassic World. The hit action movie introduced new characters and a new dinosaur theme park, and spawned a few sequels of its own. The franchise was rebooted again in 2025, and the future of Jurassic Park is currently in limbo.

Despite some uncertainty, there’s no doubt that the Jurassic Park franchise will continue. It has been a lucrative series since 1993, even if the quality of each installment has varied. The concept of dinosaurs running amok opens the door for millions of storytelling possibilities, and it’s what keeps fans coming back each time there’s a new movie.

Jurassic Park (1993)

The franchise’s first film also had a profound effect on the direction of blockbuster cinema in the 1990s. Jurassic Park concerns a group of experts who are invited to the eponymous theme park, only for everything to go wrong. The movie takes time to appreciate the grandeur of it all before plunging the viewer into whimsical adventure and harrowing action.

Jurassic Park was the highest-grossing film of 1993, earning nearly $1 billion worldwide (via Box Office Mojo).

Steven Spielberg’s fingerprints are all over Jurassic Park, and his direction distinguishes the movie’s magic from Michael Crichton’s cynical novel. The film brilliantly builds up its ensemble of characters before placing them all in their own exciting action set pieces. Even so, the dinosaurs are the real stars of the movie.

Each species is given its own distinct personality, and those traits carry on throughout the entire Jurassic Park franchise. Though the movie is far from perfect with its paleontology, it helped shape public perception of dinosaurs. It’s important to note that the entire Jurassic Park franchise follows a linear timeline, with each sequel set after the previous film.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Following the triumphant success of Jurassic Park was no easy feat, and 1997’s The Lost World was hit-or-miss. Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) travels to a secret second dinosaur island, and must survive the prehistoric beasts and a team of ruthless hunters. Spielberg returned for the sequel, and there are glimmers of the director’s signature magic.

It’s clear that The Lost World aims not to be a sequel to Jurassic Park, but more of a tribute to the adventure films of Old Hollywood. The effects and action are top-notch, but it lacks the same impact as its predecessor. It deserves credit for being the only sequel to try something different, even if it only half succeeded.

Jurassic Park III (2001)

In many ways, Jurassic Park III is the quintessential Jurassic Park sequel. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) is tricked into going back to one of the abandoned InGen dinosaur islands, and a plane crash leaves him stranded with a new bloodthirsty threat. The story is more simple and streamlined than its predecessor, and it runs at a brisk 93 minutes.

All the emphasis is placed on the action sequences, and Jurassic Park III delivers without a lot of fluff. That’s not to say it’s a great movie, and its middling reviews are an accurate assessment overall. The script features a few unusual moments (namely the plane dream sequence) that don’t really fit into the tone of the Jurassic Park franchise.

However, its lack of ambition is ultimately its saving grace. There are some really cool action set pieces that build upon ideas introduced in the novel and original film. Even though Jurassic Park III is a mediocre film, it’s an excellent continuation of the original movie’s core concept.

Jurassic World (2015)

Nearly a decade and a half after the third film, Jurassic World arrived as the franchise’s first reboot. A new dinosaur park has popped up, and naturally it doesn’t take long for the creations to escape and cause havoc. Jurassic World borrows details from the first film, but makes everything 100 times larger in scale.

The park is larger, the action is bigger, and the characters are more bombastic. Chris Pratt stars as dinosaur trainer, Owen Grady, and he returns for the next two films as well. There’s a simple bluntness to Jurassic World that makes it work. It doesn’t overthink itself, a lesson its sequels would fail to learn.

The film relies exclusively on CGI effects for the first time in the Jurassic Park series, but they look stellar. Like a lot of soft reboots, Jurassic World has enough to make it familiar to fans of the original films, but it has a glossy coat of paint that places it squarely in the 2010s blockbuster era.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

If Jurassic World was simple but effective, its sequel was the exact opposite. In Fallen Kingdom, Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and Owen (Pratt) travel to Isla Nublar to rescue dinosaurs, only to discover a sinister plot. Genetically engineered dinosaurs and evil scientists help to make the film the most convoluted in the franchise.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has a lot going on, and it strains under the weight of its complexity. It serves up a silly plot with a completely straight face, and it doesn’t work. The magic of the Jurassic Park franchise is its ability to wave away a lot of issues with its science fiction, but Fallen Kingdom can’t do that.

Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

Jurassic World Dominion was a clear course-correction for the franchise, and it fell back on the tried and true formula of nostalgia. A few years after Fallen Kingdom, dinosaurs are now all over the globe and they threaten human civilization. The big selling point for the Jurassic World threequel is the return of Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, and Laura Dern.

Since all three legendary actors have returned at some point in the franchise’s history, Dominion‘s nostalgia bait doesn’t quite have the intended impact. The movie doesn’t give them much to do, and the whole project jumps aimlessly from one plot point to the next. However, it scores points for great action scenes and trying to wrap things up.

In an era of endless and bloated franchises, Jurassic World Dominion actually gave its characters a satisfying conclusion. The quality of the threequel is entirely subjective, but it certainly feels closer to Jurassic World than the intervening sequel. Though it served up an ending, the franchise returned in only a few years.

Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)

Three years after the original Jurassic World series ended, it got a reboot of its own with Rebirth. An operative is dispatched to secure DNA from dinosaurs on a remote island, but the vicious creatures have their own plans. Scarlett Johansson lent her considerable name to the series, and it was enough to secure a huge box office.

Rebirth is similar to Jurassic Park III in that it completely streamlines its plot and focuses only on dinosaur action. However, it may have streamlined itself to the point that it has no substance whatsoever. The aforementioned JP-3 is pretty entertaining throughout, but the 2025 flick suffers from long bouts of boredom.

It’s the second-longest film in the franchise, and it certainly feels like it. Unfortunately, the reboot didn’t really reboot much at all. It didn’t introduce a lot of new material, and couldn’t even get the details right to feel like a copy of the original. After seven movies, the Jurassic Park franchise isn’t extinct yet. However, it’s unclear what form it will take in the future.