10 Film Franchises That Successfully Recovered From Awful Entries
6. Jurassic Park
The Awful Entry – Jurassic Park III (2002)
The original Jurassic Park is without question one of the most universally cherished films of all time, transcending generations with its incredible premise, thrills, casting and effects. Its success spawned a sequel, which deviated significantly from author Michael Crichton’s work but retained the directorial guidance of Steven Spielberg, who steered it to a respectable $600 million worldwide gross.
Jurassic Park III, which saw the reins passed to Joe Johnston, dropped to almost half of that, delivering a dull imitation of the original’s brilliance that wasn’t even screened for critics given the studio’s lack of faith in its quality. Clocking in at just over an hour and a half in runtime, it could easily be mistaken for a direct-to-video sequel were it not for the admittedly fantastic dinosaur effects, though the goodwill earned by these is crushed by the godawful dream sequence where a velociraptor talks to Alan Grant.
The series then went on hiatus for more than a decade. Bringing it back in the form of Jurassic World was a gamble given how the cinematic attitude towards dinosaurs had faded, but Colin Trevorrow delivered an enjoyable popcorn movie that took the franchise back into ‘fresh’ territory on RottenTomatoes.
His work was somewhat undone by 2018’s Fallen Kingdom, but its financial success has ensured that the property will be in Trevorrow’s hands to resuscitate in terms of entrancement once more next year.