What’s The Best Order To Watch The Jurassic Movies?

Somehow, the cloned dinosaurs of Jurassic Park are about to return for the seventh film in the series, a soft reboot called Jurassic Park Rebirth, which will take us back to the islands where dinosaurs still rule the Earth. It’s been a long and winding road (full of murderous raptors) to get to this point, and although Rebirth is bringing back original Jurassic Park writer David Koepp, there has been a lot of dinosaur continuity between 1993 and 2025.

Based on the 1990 novel Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton, the original text dealt with one of the author’s favorite themes: a sci-fi theme park run amok. Like his 1973 film Westworld, Crichton seems to have an obsession with recreating the past through sci-fi means, and then having contemporary humans get hunted by modern-day-Frankenstein monsters. And yet, unlike the darkness of Westworld (and the relative grimness of Crichton's two Jurassic books), this concept also lent itself to strangely idealistic movies in which the horror of recreating extinct life is mashed up perfectly with a childlike love of dinosaurs.

With the release of Rebirth, there will be seven Jurassic movies in total, which previously included two trilogies and two different animated shows. And, if you’re planning a Jurassic binge before or after Rebirth, what’s the best order to watch the movies? Are any of the sequels even close to the 1993 original? And what about the cartoons? Here’s your guide to watching the Jurassic movies in several orders, depending on what you’re in the mood for.

Jurassic Park and Jurassic World Release Order

For a historical completist, sifting through the past of the Jurassic franchise, the most straightforward way to watch the franchise is simply in release order. This would mean you would start with the first movie in 1993, then watch its mixed-bag sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, from 1997, and keep going from there. Notably, there’s a 14-year gap between Jurassic Park III (2001) and Jurassic World (2015). And, starting with The Lost World, you’ll start noticing a pattern: Many Jurassic sequels deal with teams of people trying to raid the various dinosaur islands to obtain samples of the dinos, either for profit, preservation, or both.

• Jurassic Park (1993)
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
• Jurassic Park III (2001)
• Jurassic World (2015)
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
• Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous (2020–2022)
• Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
• Jurassic World: Chaos Theory (2024–present)
• Jurassic World Rebirth (2025)

Jurassic: Only the Best Watch Order

Unlike other franchises with tons of installments (Star Trek, the James Bond movies), it's pretty safe to say that there’s not much fan debate about which Jurassic movie is the best. The original 1993 film has never been topped, and certainly never will be. So, what if you wanted to just watch the best installments (in addition to the original), what should you do?

This watch order is more about what to exclude, rather than what to include. Essentially, if we’re being brutally honest, the newer films starting with Jurassic World in 2015 are a series of diminishing returns. Visually, all these movies look incredible, but the novelty and emotional investment in each film is key. Essentially, after the first movie, there’s always some sort of contrivance needed to get people back to Isla Nublar or Isla Sorna. Or, as with the later films, a reason for dinosaurs to appear in other parts of the world has to be set up or explained.

All of these writing tricks can end up being very heavy-handed and ultimately distracting from the story. So, the best criterion for good Jurassic movies is when this element is less distracting. For that reason, this list includes the underrated animated series Camp Cretaceous and Chaos Theory. With these animated series, you’re hardly thinking about why any of it is happening, which plays to the childlike strength of the first film.

This watch order also excludes Fallen Kingdom (2018), Dominion (2022), and Jurassic Park III (2001) because each of those installments is overly obsessed with and entangled in logistics, that you can’t really enjoy the dinosaurs.

Here’s the best Jurassic watch order, which excludes the worst:

• Jurassic Park (1993)
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
• Jurassic World (2015)
• Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous (2020–2022)
• Jurassic World: Chaos Theory (2024–present)

It should be noted that this list could maybe include the new film, Jurassic World Rebirth.

Jurassic Park Classic Characters Watch Order

If we stick to the idea that it's the humans that make the Jurassic franchise interesting, then, following the story of the original three people from the first film, will provide you with the most satisfying watch order. In the first movie, we’ve got Dr. Grant (Sam Neill), Dr. Sattler (Laura Dern), and Dr. Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) all together, as a kind of ad hoc version of the Ghostbusters. Then, The Lost World is basically Malcolm’s movie, and Jurassic Park III is Dr. Grant’s return, with a cameo from Sattler toward the end.

Then, Dominion becomes the trio’s big reunion movie in 2022, and we try to forget that Ian Malcolm also had a sad cameo in Fallen Kingdom.

Here’s the correct Jurassic watch order to just get the story of the classic three characters: Grant, Sattler, and Malcolm.

• Jurassic Park (1993)
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
• Jurassic Park III (2001)
• Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

Jurassic Best Dinosaurs Watch Order

Okay okay. Maybe, truly, the best way to watch all the Jurassic movies is to focus on the main attraction: the dinosaurs themselves.

And, if you’re just interested in the very best dinosaur action, nearly any Jurassic movie will do. Again, this watch order is more about what is being excluded, rather than included. The first film obviously gave us a T. Rex, a Brachiosaurus, a Triceratops, and a memorable gaggle of Velociraptors.

The Lost World gave even more variety, but arguably, the newer films have gone even further with the dino spectacle. Of specific note here is 2018’s Fallen Kingdom, which brings a bunch of dinosaurs into a mansion, which is one of the better uses of the beloved prehistoric beasts since the 1993 original.

Here’s the best Jurassic watch order for installments with the coolest dinosaurs.

• Jurassic Park (1993)
• The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
• Jurassic World (2015)
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Jurassic World Rebirth hits theaters on July 2, 2025.