10 Movies Ruined By Listening To The Fans
1. Jurassic Park III
After many Jurassic Park fans were left disappointed that The Lost World kept Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) on the sidelines - no disrespect to Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm - Universal made a concerted effort to redress that for the threequel.
Between fans missing Alan and Ellie in The Lost World and the movie grossing barely half of what the 1993 original did, the message was clear. But this utter desperation to make a third film centered around the absent duo is what became in part its undoing.
Jurassic Park III basically contorts itself into a cinematic pretzel trying to contrive a reason for Alan Grant to return to one of the dinosaur-infested islands, settling for him being tricked by a desperate couple (William H. Macy and Tea Leoni) whose son is missing on the island.
As much as Neill's easily the best thing in the film, his character's presence in this scenario isn't ever remotely convincing, and Laura Dern's Ellie ultimately only returns for a totally deflating, no-effort cameo that was filmed in a single day.
Jurassic Park III strained itself to be a direct sequel to The Lost World when, honestly, it probably would've made more sense to just go the Jurassic World route and soft-reboot the series.
Audiences clearly agreed, as the third film grossed just $368.8 million worldwide, barely half of The Lost World and scarcely a third of the original.
Furthermore, the series ended up achieving its highest box office results yet with the Jurassic World films, which until the upcoming sequel Dominion largely moved away from the characters of Alan, Ellie, and Ian.