Once the JP rights revert to the Crichton estate, are we going to look at this 2nd trilogy as a missed opportunity?

With the success of JW, one would have thought that Universal would have expanded the JP franchise. An animated TV show, a movie that would have linked this new franchise with the old one, new dinosaurs that are feathered (I'm going to defend the raptors not being feathered, but I do think that NEW ones like Deinocheirus would have been well received). But yet...None of that has happened.

Now, I like Jurassic World and I'm optimistic for JW: Fallen Kingdom, but I can't help but wonder if it's going to end up a semi-reboot of TLW. Kind of like how Star Wars fans are starting to believe, with some justification, that the 3rd trilogy is a semi-reboot of the original trilogy. I just think that Universal has no clue what it has or if they did, then they know it's too late via the amount time before the rights go back to the Crichton estate.

It's one thing about the dead period between JP3 and JW3 since you could argue it was needed to help washout the bad taste JP3 left in people's mouths. But this new era of Jurassic Park just seems...lacking. I know that this is early, and I'm still going into JW:FK with an open mind and optimism, but I can't help but wonder if we'll see this as a missed opportunity in the future.

Great post. I have had this exact feeling for a while. Obviously like you said it's simply too soon to judge a missed opportunity. But even if fallen kingdom and JW3 are really good films I still wholeheartedly believe there could be a lot more done with this universe than just two more films.

If FK doesn't fill me absolute awe and wonder I'm going to view these films as good but missed opportunities.

The more I think about about, the more I'm convinced that The Lost World was the last Jurassic Park movie that Universal really cared about. Let's face it, JP3 was only made so that Universal could have a Jurassic Park trilogy and, as much as I still like it, Jurassic World was made just to get the albatross off Universal's back.

When do the rights revert back to the Crichton estate?

Sadly I don't see Universal giving up the rights, they'll do everything in their power to keep the Jurassic Park franchise with them even if it means coughing up a lot of dough. I don't think Universal has been bad for the franchise even with the dead years but I would like another studio's take on it. I mean I think after the JW trilogy the franchise will go dormant again and in the case that all 3 JW films are a huge success then we wold likely see a terrible spin-off JW4 film a la JP/// and kill the franchise for a few years then.

Was there a missed opportunity? With the films? I can't say so, we did get two trilogies from them at least. Would I have preferred a different route taken with the sequels? Sure but I can't say I hate them either. The animated show or a live action mini-series are a bit of a missed opportunity that wouldn't have hurt them much but that would be it.


JW was made because enough time had passed that it was time for a "reboot" and cash-in. Then again even the first movie was made to cash-in. They very much cared about the franchise for JW and the others, even if JP/// got less love, you had to bet they wanted it to be a hit.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

The more I think about about, the more I'm convinced that The Lost World was the last Jurassic Park movie that Universal really cared about. Let's face it, JP3 was only made so that Universal could have a Jurassic Park trilogy and, as much as I still like it, Jurassic World was made just to get the albatross off Universal's back.

I love JP3 and I like JW and I'm extremely excited for FK, but i pretty much agree. 

Even though I think TLW is a great sequel I even think that film was ultimately made just to have another JP movie. It was done much better than the rest but still.

sdp wrote:

When do the rights revert back to the Crichton estate?

Sadly I don't see Universal giving up the rights, they'll do everything in their power to keep the Jurassic Park franchise with them even if it means coughing up a lot of dough. I don't think Universal has been bad for the franchise even with the dead years but I would like another studio's take on it. I mean I think after the JW trilogy the franchise will go dormant again and in the case that all 3 JW films are a huge success then we wold likely see a terrible spin-off JW4 film a la JP/// and kill the franchise for a few years then.

Was there a missed opportunity? With the films? I can't say so, we did get two trilogies from them at least. Would I have preferred a different route taken with the sequels? Sure but I can't say I hate them either. The animated show or a live action mini-series are a bit of a missed opportunity that wouldn't have hurt them much but that would be it.

The rights revert back to the Crichton estate after the 6th movie. I'm not sure if Universal will be able to get the rights back. I can think of 2 companies that are far more profitable: Disney and Fox. I'm not sure about Disney wanting the JP rights but I do think that Fox is. There is just so much potential and Universal is just letting them do nothing. Like having Biosyn make dinosaurs in the jungles of Africa, South America, and parts of Asia and using the legends of living dinosaurs, like Mokele-Mbembe in the Congo Basin, as cover. Making an animated cartoon show that links the old trilogy and the new one. Ret-conning the JP3 Spino as a Spinosaurus/T. rex hybrid that's the alpha male of his Spinosaur herd/pack and was made to defend them against T. rexes because they were wiping out the 'true' spinosaurs before the 'Spinotyrannus' was made.

Wait a minute, when JP rights revert back to Chrichton estate, does that take Universal's Jurassic Park rides with them? ( substituted by go-kart rides & mobile theaters w/ 3-d glasses)

Disney would never have the rights to a franchise that has people being eaten by animals.

Dead2009 wrote:

Disney would never have the rights to a franchise that has people being eaten by animals.

The Pirates of the Caribbean series and the graphic deaths of many Disney villains, especially in the 1990's would prove otherrwise.

There's always going to be companies with more money but that doesn't mean they always win, Universal has been killing it lately in the movie department besides a few bombs but overall they're doing extremely well with the few things that they have. Jurassic Park was the top grossing movie of all time at one point and for many years was was the highest grossing Universal film, which Jurassic World is now. So to Universal it's one of their most valuable IPs, there is no way they're going to let the rights go, they might even outright buy the IP.

Disney doesn't care, they have enough properties to buy the rights for a huge franchise like Jurassic Park. Again I think it would be cool to see another companies take on the franchise like Fox but Universal isn't so bad and I don't see it happening either. Who knows if JW2 is a B.O. disappointment and JW3 bombs then maybe they won't try to keep the rights.


Universal also owns the music so if another company got the rights we would never again hear the classic theme in a movie again or see the classic logo. And also possibly merchandise based on the original films, I'm actually not sure how the rights to those would work but if we got by how it works with other industries I'm familiar with then for it to happen a company would need to license the current Jurassic Park licensee and then also Universal.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

Dead2009 wrote:

Disney would never have the rights to a franchise that has people being eaten by animals.

The Pirates of the Caribbean series and the graphic deaths of many Disney villains, especially in the 1990's would prove otherrwise.

Yeah, PotC has had some pretty graphic deaths (especially in the 2nd and 3rd movies). I mean, PotC3 begins with a child being hanged (not seen, but it still happens). That death-by-tentacles scene in 3 was also pretty horrible

Anyway, I don't know what exactly Universal owns here, but I'd hate if future films couldn't connect to the originals in some way. At that point, I'd probably lose interest. A well-done animated series taking place between films could be fun though.

sdp wrote:

So to Universal it's one of their most valuable IPs, there is no way they're going to let the rights go, they might even outright buy the IP.

If we had this discussion in the 1990's, it would be one thing. But now, the F&F franchise is their largest franchise that they care about. TBH, it's one of the few things they have. The Dark Universe is crippled after 2 misfires via Dracula: Untold and The Mummy, the Bourne franchise=James Bond knockoff, they can't rely on Despicable Me/Minions forever, so they really don't have much.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

If we had this discussion in the 1990's, it would be one thing. But now, the F&F franchise is their largest franchise that they care about. TBH, it's one of the few things they have. The Dark Universe is crippled after 2 misfires via Dracula: Untold and The Mummy, the Bourne franchise=James Bond knockoff, they can't rely on Despicable Me/Minions forever, so they really don't have much.

For this exact reason they won't let go of Jurassic World, which outperformed their big cow F&F. This is why they didn't rush a sequel and set it to release 3 years later, to not rush it.

sdp wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

If we had this discussion in the 1990's, it would be one thing. But now, the F&F franchise is their largest franchise that they care about. TBH, it's one of the few things they have. The Dark Universe is crippled after 2 misfires via Dracula: Untold and The Mummy, the Bourne franchise=James Bond knockoff, they can't rely on Despicable Me/Minions forever, so they really don't have much.

For this exact reason they won't let go of Jurassic World, which outperformed their big cow F&F. This is why they didn't rush a sequel and set it to release 3 years later, to not rush it.

But they didn't really expand on their success either. We're STILL waiting for the JW comic book. Other then making this new movie, they've done nothing but sit on all that money or threw much of it away for their dumbass Dark Universe. They had a golden opportunity and are throwing it all away.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

But they didn't really expand on their success either. We're STILL waiting for the JW comic book. Other then making this new movie, they've done nothing but sit on all that money or threw much of it away for their dumbass Dark Universe. They had a golden opportunity and are throwing it all away.

We've seen more licensed Jurassic Park stuff since JW than we've ever before. They weren't satisfied with what Hasbro was doing and gave the license to Mattel. IDW got the license or renewed it, they can do what they want with it and release what they want, they said "this year" so technically we're still in line to get it, they're likely waiting for some of the marketing like the trailer to hit and release around that time to benefit from the marketing or maybe Universal isn't letting them because it may include a spoiler that they want to keep for a while. If Universal isn't happy with IDW they'll take it away once it expires and won't let them re-new it like with Hasbro. It also seems we're getting a video game.

Jurassic Park was seen as a dead franchise, no one expected JW to do so well which is why we didn't see as much licensed stuff when the movie came out. Univesal doesn't actually make the products, they can only sell the license but if companies are not interested there's nothing they can do.

They likely thought the Dark Universe was a good idea, but we'll see if they continue with it or not but no matter what, the failure of The Mummy will only cement Jurassic Park as a property they want to take care of.

Like sdp said, not everyone expected JW to do well. There's more expectation for Fallen Kingdom, so there could perhaps be more expanded universe/merch for it.