10 Iconic Movie Characters With Less Screen Time Than You Think

10. The Dinosaurs - Jurassic Park

The dinosaurs are obviously the big draw in Jurassic Park, but they get considerably less screen time than you might think.

CGI dinosaurs only get six minutes of screen time, while practical effects add another 14. All in all, that’s 20 minutes, leaving 107 non-dinosaur minutes of the movie; much less than most would guess.

Budgetary constraints obviously had an influence of Spielberg’s decision, but it definitely added to the drama and extra focus on the human characters worked wonders. While the dinosaurs are the draw and the curiosity, the storytelling is where Jurassic Park truly excels.

Some of the later movies seem to forget that the true magic is in the storytelling of the human characters, throwing more dinosaurs on screen with diminishing returns. Despite four sequels, none really come close to the originals.

The Jurassic franchise would later repeat this trick of trying to make a small appearance have a big impact with Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. He bookends the film with a committee testimony, but in that case those scenes feel superfluous and clearly tacked on to wedge Goldblum into the movie.