The cold-shouldered black sheep of a reinvigorated $6 billion franchise gets hoodwinked into a streaming rescue mission

Up until Colin Trevorrow’s giant locust movie Dominion came along, most people would agree that Jurassic Park III was the weakest installment in the long-running franchise. Even if you don’t hold that opinion, which is fair enough when it’s not a stretch to say it might just be underrated, it was definitely the worst-reviewed.

Apart from that, it stands out as the black sheep of the franchise for other reasons, too. Joe Johnston stepped in to direct after Steven Spielberg helmed the first two installments, and delivered the closest thing to a standalone story the Jurassic universe had ever seen. Sure, Sam Neill’s Alan Grant is there and Laura Dern’s Ellie Sattler makes a gratuitous cameo, but it’s not really connected to the overarching mythos in the same way the other five entries are.

It’s additionally one of just two that didn’t manage to earn a billion dollars at the box office following a mediocre theatrical run that saw it wind up as the lowest-grossing Jurassic entry by a whole $250 million, although it does live on through its status as the sole chapter to feature a talking dinosaur thanks to the legendary hallucinatory “Alan!” scene on the airplane. You know the one.

The red-headed stepchild it may be, then, but Jurassic Park III has nonetheless been surging on streaming, with FlixPatrol outing the reluctant rescue mission that saw Dr. Grant hoodwinked against his better judgement as being one of the most popular titles on both Prime Video and iTunes so far this week.