If Anne Hathaway’s Dinosaur Movie Fails, We’re Stuck With Jurassic World Forever

The End of Oak Street will try to be one of the first dinosaur movies to succeed outside of the Jurassic franchise. If Anne Hathaway‘s dinosaur movie fails, we’ll be stuck with Jurassic World films forever.

The End of Oak Street stars Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor as Denise and Greg Platt, a couple with two children who live on Oak Street. Somehow, a cosmic event transports their street to a time with prehistoric creatures. “The Platt family soon discovers that their very survival depends on them sticking together as they navigate their now unrecognizable surroundings,” the official synopsis reads.

David Robert Mitchell writes and directs the movie for Warner Bros. It’s an original event film that is not based on a pre-existing IP, a rarity in the dinosaur space. Hollywood has not made too many dinosaur movies outside of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World. It’s somewhat of a curse, considering many of the non-Jurassic movies have failed. That’s why a lot is riding on The End of Oak Street to succeed, because if it fails, who knows when Hollywood will try to make another original dinosaur movie.

Hollywood desperately needs a dinosaur hit that isn’t Jurassic World

One would think dinosaurs are guaranteed hits in Hollywood. Unfortunately, the evidence does not support that theory. Since 1993, the track record of non-Jurassic dinosaur movies is poor, especially in the live-action space. 2009’s Land of the Lost, a sci-fi comedy starring Will Ferrell, bombed at the box office and received poor reviews. 2023’s 65 had a good concept, but the film could not overcome mixed reviews and only grossed $60 million.

In animation, 2015’s The Good Dinosaur received generally positive reviews, but it became Pixar’s first box office failure. 2000’s Dinosaur probably had the most success out of any non-Jurassic movie since the original Jurassic Park in 1993.

2015’s Jurassic World was the best and worst thing to happen to that franchise. On the positive, it revived a beloved franchise and proved to be a financial juggernaut with a $1.7 billion worldwide gross. However, the movie rehashed a lot of the plot points that worked in Jurassic Park, particularly the idea that humans should not play god by breeding dinosaurs for profit. It’s a core theme of the Jurassic movies that has been beaten to death.

After Jurassic World, the next three movies in the franchise all grossed at least $872 million, with two exceeding $1 billion. Audiences still go to the movies for the spectacle of dinosaurs, but the stories have gotten significantly weaker. The dinosaur space desperately needs new stories.

Could The End of Oak Street be the movie that finally breaks through? It certainly faces an uphill battle, considering audiences have been conditioned to understand that dinosaurs predominantly come from the Jurassic franchise. If The End of Oak Street works, it could lead to more original stories with dinosaurs. If it fails, prepare for endless Jurassic World sequels.

The End of Oak Street hits theaters on August 14, 2026.

Originally written by Dan Girolamo at Coming Soon