Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and the first of the Jurassic Park franchise. It is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton, with a screenplay by Crichton and David Koepp. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Ariana Richards, Joseph Mazzello, Martin Ferrero, Samuel L. Jackson and Bob Peck. The film centers on the fictional Isla Nublar near Costa Rica's Pacific Coast, where a billionaire philanthropist and a small team of genetic scientists have created a wildlife park of cloned dinosaurs.

Before Crichton's book was published, four studios put in bids to acquire the film rights. Spielberg, with the backing of Universal Studios, acquired the rights for $1.5 million before publication in 1990, and Crichton was hired for an additional $500,000 to adapt the novel for the screen. David Koepp wrote the final draft, which left out much of the novel's exposition and violence and made numerous changes to the characters. Filming took place in California and Hawaii. The dinosaurs were created through groundbreaking computer-generated imagery by Industrial Light & Magic in conjunction with life-sized animatronic dinosaurs built by Stan Winston's team.

Following an extensive $65 million marketing campaign, which included licensing deals with 100 companies, Jurassic Park grossed over $900 million worldwide, surpassing another Spielberg film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, to become the highest-grossing film released up to that time (it was surpassed four years later by Titanic).

Following a 3D re-release to celebrate the film's 20th anniversary on April 5, 2013, Jurassic Park has grossed over $1 billion at the box office making it the 17th film to gross over $1 billion and currently ranks as the thirteenth highest grossing film worldwide, and 16th-highest-grossing film in North America, unadjusted for inflation. It is the highest-grossing film released by Universal and directed by Spielberg. The film was also well received by critics, with praise to the effects and Spielberg's direction, but criticism on the writing, and won many awards, mostly for its visual effects, as well as a landmark in the use of computer-generated imagery. The film was followed by two sequels, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park IIIwhich both became box office successes, but received mixed critical response. A fourth film entitled Jurassic World is scheduled for release in 2015.