Dinosaurs captivate each ages. The creatures that dominated Earth ages ago, populating our satellite for 165 cardinal years, volition ever beryllium fascinating. And, connected screen, arsenic portion of movie history, dinosaurs person ever been a go-to genre for unthinkable spectacle and chilling thrills - whether you're into t-rexes, pterodactyls, raptors, oregon gentle elephantine brontosauruses.
Dinosaur movies transport america backmost successful clip to the epoch of these wondrous reptiles, portion different instances amusement dinosaurs surviving among us, either connected a secluded land mislaid to past oregon arsenic cloned beings brought backmost by subject for our amusement (and dismemberment).
The Jurassic Park/World franchise has raked successful implicit $6 cardinal successful container bureau bucks implicit the past 30 years, proving that these glorious beasts tin bring location the bacon. But which dinosaur films are the best?
Here are our picks of the 10 champion dinosaur movies, from trampled taxable parks to warring prehistoric titans.
Looking for much movies featuring elephantine lizards?
- The champion dragon movies
- Godzilla movies successful order
The 10 Best Dinosaur Movies
Jurassic Park (1993)

Um, duh. Yup, not lone is Spielberg's Jurassic Park 1 of the champion "dinosaur movies ever," it easy doubles arsenic 1 of the "best movies ever." Adapted from Michael Crichton's caller (and second communicative astir a futuristic amusement parkland gone lethally haywire), Jurassic Park is endlessly entertaining and infinitely quotable, providing adjacent parts laughter and horror. Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum prima successful this tyrannosaurus-sized communicative astir scientists evaluating a - er - unsocial household attraction earlier it opens to the public. Hold onto your butts, due to the fact that this appraisal winds up with a assemblage count.
See our usher connected however to ticker the Jurassic Park movies successful order.
Jurassic World (2015)

More than 20 years aft the archetypal Jurassic Park (which coiled up becoming a trilogy), Jurassic World kicked disconnected a caller conception of the franchise, with greedy corporations and opportunistic scientists learning thing from erstwhile tragedies and opening "Jurassic World" to patrons everywhere. Naturally, things spell horribly awry and carnage ensues and Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard anchor a budding dino-apocalypse. The films would yet bring backmost the archetypal 3 stars but the archetypal World installment stands gangly arsenic a formulaic but amusive feast for the senses.
The Land Before Time (1988)

From George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, this Don Bluth animated classical blossomed into a decades-spanning franchise featuring 13 sequels, respective video games, and a TV series. The communicative of a young orphaned dinosaur named Littlefoot, who embarks connected a large travel to find a paradise called the Great Valley, The Land Before Time is simply a beautifully animated '80s staple. The saga teaches kids astir the value of friendship, the dangers of prejudice, and the powerfulness of hope.
Dinosaur (2000)

Disney's Dinosaur, the company's 39th animated feature, finds a batch successful communal with The Land Before Time arsenic it besides follows a young orphaned dino, this clip connected a trek to observe to the idyllic Nesting Grounds aft a meteor ablution devastates their island. A premix of live-action, galore of the backgrounds were filmed connected determination portion the dinos themselves were computer-generated, making it the astir costly computer-animated movie astatine the time. Voiced by D.B. Sweeney, Julianna Margulies, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Joan Plowright, and Hayden Panettiere.
The Good Dinosaur (2015)

Though it's technically the archetypal Pixar movie to not rather conscionable profitable expectations, The Good Dinosaur is wacky, charming household entertainment, supplemented by the voices of Sam Elliott, Anna Paquin, Jeffrey Wright, and three-time Oscar-winner Frances McDormand. Like astir animated dino films, the communicative involves a thrilling, meaningful journey, though this clip it's wrong an alternate past wherever reptilian dinosaurs ne'er went extinct. In The Good Dinosaur, a shy Apatosaurus, Arlo, meets an improbable quality person portion traveling done a unsafe and mysterious scenery successful bid to instrumentality home.
King Kong (1933)

Most King Kong films are bully for a ravenous dino oregon two, truthful wherefore not revisit the 1933 archetypal and ticker humans observe Skull Island, location of not lone Kong but prehistoric beingness of each kinds: including the Tyrannosaurus-rex, the Stegosaurus, the Pteranodon, and more. King Kong is simply a classic, celebrated for being a existent spectacle astatine the clip with game-changing peculiar effects, from stop-motion pioneer Willis O'Brien. Kong is inactive thriving today, arsenic portion of Legendary's MonsterVerse, with the latest entry, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, worthy checking retired too.
Kong: Skull Island (2017)

King Kong's MonsterVerse reboot began with Kong: Skull Island, a rollicking Vietnam War-era escapade starring Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, and John Goodman arsenic a portion of a premix of scientists, soldiers, and scholars trapped connected Kong's dreaded isle of terrifying creatures. In a twist though, the island's accustomed dinosaurs person been beaten and eaten by caller elephantine monsters, unsocial to the movie and the MonsterVerse itself. And it wholly works. Separating itself from the Jurassic Park/World franchise, Kong: Skull Island gave viewers a caller batch of nightmare substance to fawn over.
One Million Years BC (1966)

This '60s British fantasy-adventure, from Hammer Films, starred Raquel Welch arsenic a cavewoman struggling to past successful a fictional past wherever humans and dinosaurs coexisted. A remake of a movie from 1940, One Million Years BC is simply a mostly enjoyable, kitschy featuring dinosaurs (and elephantine sea-turtles) roaming a scortched Earth, brought to beingness by stop-motion genius, and Willis H. O'Brien apprentice, Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans).
The Valley Of Gwangi (1969)

Another Harryhausen location tally was cult dino-Western, The Valley Of Gwangi, arsenic the stop-motion pro took implicit the task from mentor Willis O'Brien aft O'Brien passed distant earlier production. The communicative itself was conceived by O'Brien and combined cowboys and dinosaurs arsenic a rodeo equine is revealed to beryllium a 50 million-year-old, prompting members of a Wild West amusement to task into Mexico's Forbidden Valley successful hunt of fame and untold wealth. There, however, they face prehistoric monsters, including "Gwangi," a elephantine dinosaur that decimates their ranks.
Land of the Lost (2009)

Will Ferrell and Danny McBride crook a 1970s Sid and Marty Krofft TV bid (which itself got a short-lived '90s revival) into a comedic romp successful Land of the Lost, wherever a mysterious vortex sucks a disgraced idiosyncratic (Ferrell), his adjunct (Anna Friel), and a survivalist Will (McBride) into a satellite populated by marauding dinosaurs and fantastically bizarre creatures.
And that's it for our prime of the champion dinosaur movies of each time. Did you favourite marque the cut? Let america cognize successful the comments.
Upcoming Dinosaur Movies
Two caller dinosaur movies are successful the works and are worthy keeping an oculus on. The archetypal is the adjacent installment successful the Jurassic World series, Jurassic World Rebirth, owed to merchandise July 2, 2025. The 2nd is simply a spot much of a mystery. It Follows manager David Robert Mitchell is moving connected a dinosaur movie, acceptable to merchandise successful 2026, which volition diagnostic Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor. According to rumors, the movie has been titled Flowervale Street and is rumored to beryllium astir dinosaurs and acceptable successful the 80s.