WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE BOX OFFICE

There's no question that the JURASSIC PARK franchise re-invigorated the public's broader interest in dinosaurs. But it was not the first time that a movie featuring dinosaurs ruled the box office. We can go all the way back to 1914 when cartoonist Winsor "Little Nemo In Slumberland" McCay produced the first animated film featuring a dinosaur, GERTIE THE DINOSAUR (see image above).

Over the ensuing years, the public's fascination for dinosaurs never really waned. Other films followed, such as, THE LOST WORLD (1925), created by Willis O'Brien and lensed by Arthur "Frankenstein" Edeson, KING KONG (1933), again with work by O'Brien, ONE MILLION, B.C. (1940), starring Victor Mature, Carol Landis and Lon Chaney, Jr., and the Hammer prehistoric movies, a remake of the 1940 film, ONE MILLION YEARS, B.C. (1966), PREHISTORIC WOMEN (1966), and WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH (1970).

These articles from the June, 2015 issue of STARBURST trace the history of dinosaur films, not to mention the most famous dinosaur movie maker in cinema history, Ray Harryhausen.

More Dino-mania HERE.