John Hammond's line in the first movie.

In the first Jurassic Park film where John Hammond is talking with Alan and Ellie in the trailer, he has a line which to me seems quite confusing.

"I own an island off the coast of Costa Rica, I've leased it from the government...."

So does he own the island or is he just renting it off the Costa Rican government?

Anyone have any thoughts?

I'm not very good at debate, but I'll give this a shot. Hammond leased Isla Nublar from the Costa Rican government. The reason he says "I own an island..." is probably because it sounds better, and then he would go into further detail later. To prepare for this answer, I looked it up on the Isla Nublar movie canon page on Wikia, and this is pretty much how they explain this. I own an island probably just sounds better than I leased an island, since not everyone knows what a lease is, so it would probably confuse the general movie audience.

Depending on the contract on the lease, he may temporarily own the island, making what he says true.