Jurassic Park III (2001)

Jurassic Park III is a 2001 American science fiction action film directed by Joe Johnston and written by Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne, and Jim Taylor. It is the third film in the Jurassic Park franchise and the final film in the original Jurassic Park trilogy, following The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997). It is also the first film in the franchise not to be directed by Steven Spielberg, as well as the first not to be based on a novel by Michael Crichton, however, the film features characters and ideas created by Crichton. The film stars Sam Neill, William H. Macy, Téa Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor Morgan, and Michael Jeter, with brief appearances by Laura Dern. Neill and Dern reprise their roles from the first film as Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler. The film's plot involves a divorced couple who, via subterfuge, enlist the help of Grant to find their son, who has gone missing on Isla Sorna.

After the release of Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993), Johnston expressed interest in directing a sequel. Universal Pictures announced the third film in June 1998, and Johnston was announced as director the following year. A draft written by Buchman was rejected five weeks ahead of filming in favor of a simpler story idea suggested by David Koepp, the writer of the previous two films. Payne and Taylor were hired to rewrite the earlier script by Buchman, who made further revisions to their draft. Filming lasted five months, beginning in Hawaii in August 2000, before moving to California, with a $93 million budget. A final draft of the script was never completed during production, a circumstance Johnston considered quitting over. Jurassic Park III features a combination of computer-generated and animatronic dinosaurs. Spinosaurus replaces Tyrannosaurus from the previous two films as the main and lead dinosaur.

Jurassic Park III premiered on July 16, 2001, and was theatrically released on July 18. Despite receiving mixed reviews from critics, the film was a box-office success, grossing $368.8 million worldwide and becoming the eighth highest-grossing film of 2001, however, it is the lowest-grossing film in the franchise. In 2015, it was followed by Jurassic World, which launched the sequel series.