How to Watch the 'Jurassic Park' Movies in Order

• Where to Watch - Amazon

The origins of Jurassic Park dates back to a screenplay turned novel written by author and filmmaker Michael Crichton in 1990, which was a cautionary tale warning of genetic engineering. The book tells of the story of the collapse of a zoo dominated by genetically recreated dinosaurs and the aftermath that follows. Steven Spielberg learned of the novel's release the year prior, which ultimately ended with Crichton negotiating a fee from Universal for the film rights.

The filming of Jurassic Park took place from August to November of 1992 in California and Hawaii, with an post-production going all the way until a month before the film's release. Stan Winston helped out with the creation of the computer-generated dinosaurs by lending some of his animatronics, and the movie premiered in theaters on June 9th, 1993.

The first Jurassic Park installment was based on the concept of the novel, which centered on an industrialist named John Hamm (Richard Attenborough), who has created a theme park of cloned dinosaurs. Paleontologists Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), along with a mathematician (Jeff Goldblum) end up being chosen as a select group to tour the theme park, who quickly find out that the park isn't as safe as promised.

At the time of its release, Jurassic Park grossed over $914 million worldwide, and surpassed the billion mark upon its 20th anniversary re-release in 2013.

• Where to Watch - Amazon

After the massive success of Jurassic Park not only was there a lot of expectations for its sequel, but the anticipation was incredibly high. Similar to the first film, The Lost World: Jurassic Park was based on the sequel to Michael Crichton's novel which was entitled The Lost World. Filming took place mostly in California from September to December 1996, with a brief stop in Kauai, Hawaii. The computer-generated imagery and animatronics was used even more extensively for the sequel, which took place four years after the first.

The Lost World saw the return of Richard Attenborough's John Hammond with some newfound information about a second island, Isla Sorna, also being a place where cloned dinosaurs are kept. Hammond brings Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm into the equation as he wants to observe and document the dinosaurs before the island is found.

Steven Spielberg served as the director once again, and The Lost World opened up to mixed reviews from critics despite being one of the most anticipated films of 1997. That said, the sequel still took home $618.6 million worldwide to become the second highest-grossing film of the year.

• Where to Watch - Amazon

By the time 2001 rolled around, a lot had changed with the Jurassic Park franchise. Steven Spielberg was no longer involved with the projects, and there wasn't a novel from Michael Crichton to base the film on. That meant for the first time in the series there would be plot drafted from scratch with no prior reference other than the previous films. The third film focuses almost exclusively on Sam Neill's paleontologist character Alan Grant as he unknowingly sets on a rescue mission on Isla Sorna for a man and his son.

The dinosaurs are still very much present on the island, and still very much hostile towards their un-welcomed visitors which prompts another adventure of ducking and dodging the reptiles. While Jurassic Park III was a hit at the box office, it also was and still is the lowest-grossing film of the series. All good things must come to an end, so 2001 would mark the final release of the first trilogy and a fourteen year wait before the franchise would be revived.

• Where to Watch - Amazon

If the saying "all good things must come to an end" is true, then there's also truth to the statement "history repeats itself." The early makings of Jurassic World dates back to the early 2000s when the concept of a fourth film was being explored. After ten years of working, re-working, pausing completely, and starting back up, production finally began on Jurassic World with the notion that it was going to be the start of a brand new trilogy as opposed to a fourth installment of the original series. Oh, and guess who came back? Steven Spielberg.

Jurassic World is set 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park, and is back on the island of Isla Nubla with a brand new theme park full of genetically engineered dinosaurs. The film stars Chris Pratt as a former military man and animal expert named Owen Grady, who's left with the task of saving everybody from these volatile dinosaurs and getting them off the island. Similar to the 1993 film, Jurassic World was a huge blockbuster success grossing $1.6 billion at the box office to become the highest-grossing film of the series, and one of the highest-grossing films ever at the time of its release.

• Where to Watch - Amazon

And like The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the follow up to Jurassic World was highly anticipated with tons of expectation due to its predecessor reaching astronomical heights. There were some changes between Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom though, the first being that Steven Spielberg wasn't involved in the project. Instead, J.A. Bayona got the honor of directorial duties for the movie, which is set three years after the first events. In it, Chris Pratt's Owen Grady and Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire Dearing return to Isla Nublar where a volcano is soon to impact the dinosaurs.

Due to the havoc the dinosaurs are causing, it is voted to let the dinosaurs die as a result of the volcano, but Owen and Claire team up with Benjamin Lockwood (James Cromwell) to save the dinosaurs, and while on the island they discover that there's actually... a new breed of them. Fallen Kingdom delivered in the box office department, pulling in $1.3 billion worldwide.

• Where to Watch - Amazon Prime

And this is where Jurassic Park leaves us for now—Jurassic World: Dominion which takes place four years after Fallen Kingdom in the aftermath of Isla Nublar being destroyed. As a result, the dinosaurs are now living and hunting amongst humans all over the world, and the line is a thin one. In Dominion, we finally find out whether or not the two can successfully co-exist, or...not. The film was directed by Colin Trevorrow, and hit the $1 billion mark quite easily despite being in the aftermath of a real-time global pandemic in which people were still iffy about going to movie theaters.