Ticket sales for The Lost World: Jurassic Park may have dropped 62% in its second weekend, but the dinosaur drama is far from extinct.
"The second weekend is bigger than the opening weekends of most pictures," says John Krier of Exhibitor Relations, the box office tracking firm, which reports that the film made $34.1 million in its second weekend after a record $90.2 million opening Memorial Day weekend.
The holiday weekend covered four days, which skews the figures, he adds. Still, even if three-day totals are compared, the film dropped 53%, startling some observers.
But Universal Pictures is ebullient about the film's cumulative $141.5 million take.
"It's far and away the highest-grossing film after 10 days of all time, and we couldn't be happier," says Universal's Alan Sutton. He points out that Lost World's drop was comparable to the decline of last year's Mermorial Day blockbuster, Mission Impossible, which went on to gross $181 million.
However, Dennis McAlpine, an entertainment analyst with Josephthal, Lyon & Ross brokerage house, says the drop is larger than it should be.
"You'd expect to see a 30% drop," says McAlpine, who believes a follow-up to a box office pheonomenon should have held on to more of its audience. "But the people who wanted to see it saw it the first weekend."
Opening the movie on a record 6,000 screens has hurt momentum, he believes, because there are no long lines at theaters. "Big lines tend to create more interest." Also, word of mouth is as mixed as reviews: Many moviegoers like Lost World's improved special effects but aren't keen on its plot.
"All of this is possible, but look at the bottom line," Krier says. "It paid off for Universal, and it paid off for the theaters. It's going to be the picture to beat this summer."

To add to the report yesterday that Fox bought the rights to air The Lost World for an amazing 85$ million dollars, Brent adds that the deal gives Fox the exclusive (no HBO or pay-per-view) privilege of being able to show TLW for the next 10 years, starting in about a year and a half. (Early 1999).

Sega just put up a webpage on the three JP2 video games that are in the works (Saturn, Genesis, and Game Gear). You can visit the page here. (tanks to Wink)

Woo hoo--finally a new game for my Genesis!

Vince Vaughn is scheduled to appear on the Conan O' Brian show tonight, which airs on CNBC at 10 pm (EDT). (Thanks to carpy@interlynx.net)

Last Week's Poll Results: Last week I asked "Which was better, 'The Lost World' or 'Jurassic Park'". Well, the results are in, and The Lost World is the victor, with more than 61% of the votes! I was a little surprised myself. In my humble opinion, while I thought TLW was awesome, I didn't feel that it was as good as the first.

This week, I'm going to let you Rate The Lost World, similar to how you did it if you submitted a review to the "You Review JP2" section. Vote Here!

"The first book was, to me, about microsubjects and DNA and technology," Michael Crichton told interviewer Charlie Rose, "while the second one is about macrosubjects. It's about populations, longterm trends and extinction."...
..."I remember, in the early '80s," Crichton said on "Nova" in November 1993, "walking on the beach with Marvin Minsky, who is at the [artificial intelligence] lab at MIT, and saying in this very tentative way, 'You know, I'm thinking about doing a story about a genetically engineered dinosaur,' and waiting to see if he would make fun of me. And he said, 'Oh, well, yeah, that could probably be done one day,' which I found very encouraging."
Other writers who deal with science fiction tend to plunge into this kind of thing headfirst, but Crichton approaches his material more like a real scientist: He plots out his steps very carefully, making sure that everything is very credible, very realistic. And who knows? It might be this very cautioning that turns almost all his books into mammoth best sellers. Perhaps the reading public prefers its science fiction to be close to the reality of here and now.
"So at that point, thinking logically about it, I wondered, 'Well, if it could happened, who would pay for it?' Because even though a live dinosaur would be a nice thing to have, it wouldn't have a lot of scientific value-it's not high on people's priorities, it's not a cure for cancer-[and] it would be a very expensive undertaking. And all I could thing of was entertainment-use it as a tourist attraction, which implies a park where people would go see it. And that's Jurassic Park."
Crichton's novels had always been self-contained universes: no sequels, no continuing characters. But even before "Jurassic Park" was released, he realized that a sequel was possible. Asked whether one would follow if the movie was a big enough hit, he replied, "Isn't it interesting that no one is talking about that [now]? I haven't talked to Steven about it, but I'm certain everyone imagines that as a possibility I'm quite content because I had a sequel idea by the time I finished the original book-so I'm ready. But let's wait and see what happens."
He told PBS' Rose that the idea of doing a sequel actually came from his readers. "From the first publication of the book," he said, "kids began to read it, and they would send letters asking, 'What about a sequel? What about a sequel?' As I had never done a sequel before, I'd always say, 'There won't be one.' But then, as time went on, they would say, 'Well, this would be a good sequel,' and 'Here is another idea for a sequel!' And I'm reading them thinking, 'No, no, no,' and then I started thinking, 'Well, why not? What would be good?'"
And all this resulted in "The Lost World." When Rose asked Crichton where he got the title, the writer replied, "It's a reference to Conan Doyle, one of his more pulpy stories. It's a Professor Challenger novel, and it's actually not a very good book, but it's a wonderful title, and it's about an expedition to a place where there are dinosaurs." Although Crichton borrowed the title and scattered some names from Doyle's novel-which is far better than he indicates-throughout his own "Lost World", many of his readers were disappointed that the author did not directly acknowledge his debt to Doyle in the form of a foreword or afterword to the new book...
...More importantly, however, Ian Malcolm, played so memorably by Jeff Goldblum, does return as the lead character in both the novel and the movie. This required Crichton to do a little bobbing and weaving, since Malcolm definitely died in the "Jurassic Park" novel. In the book, the author impishly passes off tales of Malcolm's death as mere rumors, and he's once again on the trail of dinosaurs. Yes, it would be more logical for a paleontologist like Grant to seek out dinosaurs than a mathematician like Malcolm, but there you have it.
"I desperately needed that character back," Crichton told Rose, "because he is the ironic commentator inside the story who talks about the action as it takes place." Crichton added that his was like another famous Conan Doyle creation, Sherlock Holmes; Doyle tired of Holmes, and in "His Last Bow" tossed him off the Reichenbach Falls. But the public clamored for Holmes' return, and several years later, Doyle "revealed" that the famous detective had not actually plunged to his death at all. So there is precedent for Malcolm's return. (Looking ahead, the author will re-enlist the character for a yet-untitled third dinosaur novel.).....
As he did in the first book, Crichton extrapolate backward from present-day creatures; there are reptiles today that spit poison (cobras), so Crichton imagined that there could have been dinosaurs that did the same. In "The Lost World", his reverse-extrapolating idea is even creepier: There are big, vicious predators that have the camouflaging abilities of chameleons...
In the novel of "Jurassic Park", Ian Malcolm talked a lot-too much, really-about chaos theory..."Are we on the road to extinction? Absolutely," he told Rose, "because all species become extinct. The need that we have as a species is similar to what any population needs in terms of variability inside the population. There has to be enough variation inside a species so that if something happens, like a plague, some animals will survive because, let's say, an innate resistance."...
With "The Lost World", he wanted to deal with questions about extinction and what really causes it, but again placed these ideas in a tale of dinosaurs eating people. After all, in the 150 of so years that people have known dinosaurs existed, they have exerted a strong appeal to the imagination. Crichton has given this idea-why are dinosaurs so interesting?-a great deal of thought, and has reached a surprising conclusion. "I don't understand it at all. Very tiny children who can hardly speak go to a museum and shriek,'Stegosaurus! Tyrannosaurs!' They know these things-and I don't know why.
"I do know that it's a lot more complicated than we think. At one point, I was going over to Stan Winston's to see what they were doing, so I asked my daughter, who was then 3 and who likes dinosaurs, if she wanted to go along. At that time, they were very much like these," he says, pointing to toy dinosaurs on display in his office, "a single color, unpainted, but they were life-size. And she didn't like them at all. They were too big, too real, and they upset her. She didn't cry, but she was not entirely enthusiastic. Yet she's perfectly happy with dinosaur toys.
"So it's very hard to know what that appeal is. I remember when she was about a year and a half old, I was going to the zoo, which she likes, and asked her what we were going to see. She said, 'Zebras, bears, gorillas, dinosaurs'-and I realized that she just thought the dinosaurs were in a part of the zoo that she hadn't seen yet. When I told her she couldn't see the dinosaurs, she gave me that look like, 'Oh, adults, they never do what you want them to. I'll have to wait until I can go myself.' So I don't know what kids think; it's mysterious to me. But around the world, kids everywhere love dinosaurs." And of course, they want to see live ones.
But as Crichton told "Maclean's" magazine, "One of the first readers [of "Jurassic Park"] was a well-known molecular biologist. This friend of mine gave him the book, and happened to be there when he finished it. The guy slammed the book shut and said, 'It can be done!' This was reported to me with great amusement. And I'm going 'No! The whole point of the book is that it shouldn't be done.'"
But wouldn't it be wonderful if it was?

According to E! News Daily, FOX just paid a whopping $80 million (more than the cost of the entire movie!) for the rights to broadcast The Lost World on network television, beating out NBC.

Those of you who have been coming to my page since the beginning know that pool-ol' Steve has been trying to sell his Official Lost World Leather Bomber Jacket for quite some time now. The jacket is very high quality, exactly like the kind worn by the cast and crew. It's a medium size, and has a large JP2 emblem on the back. Someone should really make him a good offer (he's asking $500), before he breaks down and gives it to me. E-mail him here.

1. THE LOST WORLD....($32.6 million)
   
2. Addicted to Love....($6.4 million)
   
3. Gone Fishin'....($5.5 million)
   
4. Trial and Error....($5.0 million)
   
5. The Fifth Element....($4.0 million)
   

The Fan Fiction section is now open!. Submit your JP or LW story where all the world can see it.

Max Szoc sends along this Variety article on Spielberg and The Lost World:

ARCHERD: Spielberg Surprised By 'Lost World' Figures
There'll be some changes made in the print of "The Lost World" going to Japan -- well, at least one change, Steven Spielberg told me.

In the scene in which the dino gets loose in San Diego and terrorizes a group of Japanese tourists, the version heading to Japan will feature a closeup on one, who will exclaim, "I came to America to get away from this." It's Spielberg's joke on (as well as homage to) "Godzilla," of course.

Asked his reaction to the weekend's box office, Spielberg said, "I couldn't have dreamed it. When one of my pictures opens, I climb into a deep hole; I don't read reviews or take phone calls.

"On Saturday, someone called my wife (Kate Capshaw). And she said to me, 'I have a present for you.' She passed me a little slip of paper and it said, '$2.2 million.' My heart sunk. I always think the worst, but I couldn't believe that this could happen. I shook the piece of paper and a speck (of cereal from one of the kids' breakfast) fell off -- and it really read $22 million!" Of course, over the four days it grew to $92.7 million.

Will there be a third Jurassic Park? "It would give me a tremendous Advil headache just to think about it," he said, as he's in post-production on "Amistad" and readying a start to direct "Saving Pvt. Ryan" in Ireland with Tom Hanks. "But I am having such a good time -- show me a stage and I want to get to work in it."

He said he, George Lucas and Harrison Ford are "tenacious" about a fourth Indiana Jones. "We are totally committed to one -- if the story is right, of course." One Spielberg film which will never be sequel'd, he says, is E.T." We'd never take a chance of besmirching that wonderful memory. But in the year 2002, it will be re-released in theaters to celebrate its 20th anniversary."

Spielberg is also devoting his energies and talents to the continued production of "Survivors of Shoah" documentaries on the Holocaust. "We have now close to 31,000 documented witnesses of the holocaust who have testified and are continuing to testify. We conduct 450 interviews a week to give us their eyewitness accounts." His goal is to get the documentaries into school systems to prevent racial hatred and teach tolerance. He says, "(Los Angeles) Mayor (Richard) Riordan and (California) Governor (Pete) Wilson have been extremely constructive in getting access (to school programs in California), but there are 49 other states." And countless other countries.

Everyone and their uncle is writing to me with their "Goofs" in JP2:

• Brett Michel points out that in the San Diego scene, Ludlow thanks the reporters for coming out in "the wee hours of the morning". However, the clock on the wall of the Harbor Master's office clearly reads "9:25". And the Blockbuster Video store is strangely active.......
• In the scene in Hammond's bedroom, when Hammond says, "And now it's only a matter of time, before this, Lost World is found and pillaged," a mirror on a table to the viewer's right of Hammond reflects the blue jeans of a crew member or the camera man. (thanks to Rabbit)
• Also in the scene in Hammond's bedroom, if you look around the room (above his bed for one place) you can see what looks like a storyboard from the original movie.. (thanks to Jose Menedez)
• The second time you see the baby T-rex chained to the ground, there is a bottle of scotch in front of it, which wasn't present in the previous scene. (Obviously the scene where they put the bottle there was cut from the film) (Thanks to Jose Menedez)

• Other cool things to look for include Spielberg's reflection in the TV, Ian looking through the binoculars the wrong way, the "no dinosaurs" sign in San Diego, Eddie holding the phone up to his ear backwards, and the movie parodys in the video store.

More Jp2 toy pictures, courtesy of Kruker418 and Compy: The first is a picture of the Mobile Command Center, while the second shows the Remote Controlled dinosaurs:

It's been confirmed that there will be a Lost World game for every Sega platform (Saturn, Genesis, Arcade, and even Game Gear). Check out this press release: (thanks to Max Szoc)

Sega Saturn: A 3-D action game in which players control a series of five characters (Compy, Raptor, Human Hunter, T-Rex and Human Scientist) struggling to survive amid natural and man-made perils. The game features advanced animation techniques that make the dinosaurs move with realistic features. Working closely with the game's design team at Dreamworks Interactive, Sega is creating gameplay features specific to the Sega Saturn version. Ship date: September 1997.

Sega Arcade: Combines the fast-paced action of a shooter with the mind-bending challenges of a puzzle game. Realistic environments come to life with 3-D graphics and polygon-based characters. Ship date: August 1997.

Sega Genesis: An action adventure shooting game where gamers must capture dinosaurs for bounty. The game features 360 movement in which gamers navigate jeeps, Humvee Snagglers, boats and dinosaur transports. Ship date: August 1997.

Game Gear: A side-scrolling action adventure shooting game with six dinosaur species, plus a T-Rex bonus level. Ship date: August 1997.

A new LW product has been spotted by Joshua Fitch: Called Jurassic Park Rage Rigs, they are "die-cast" trucks with dinosaur-attack feature. "Die-cast" dinos come with them, as well as a movie figure.

By the way, I updated the Audio and Video pages yesterday.

Several more "Easter Eggs", from the The Making of the Lost World by Jody Duncan. In one of the crowd shots from the San Diego scene, you can see cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, producer Colin Wilson, CG effects artist Dennis Muren, and executive producer Kathleen Kennedy, among other members of the crew. Also, when the Japanese business men are running from the T-rex, one of them turns and shouts "I left Tokyo to get away from this!" in his native language. (thanks to Scott Forester)

Here are some behind-the-scenes shots of the new Lost World attraction at Universal Studios Florida, from Compy:

(Click a picture to enlarge)

Compy also sends along this humorous tid-bit: At the end of the walk-through attraction there was a desk and bulletin-board with pieces of paper. On one of the pieces of paper was a poem written by a member of the crew. Here it is:

Check out these pre-paid MCI Calling Cards which should be available soon, according to a press release yesterday.

Not only have the dinosaurs survived, but on the heels of their record-breaking weekend, fans can acquire the MCI The Lost World: Jurassic Park(TM) PrePaid Phone Cards. MCI and Universal Studios Consumer Products Group have entered into an exclusive agreement for The Lost World: Jurassic Park PrePaid Cards.

MCI PrePaid has created three exciting cards which consumers can find at retail outlets nationwide including service stations and convenience stores. The cards, which have a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $9.99 and $19.99, include (Top) The Lost World: Jurassic Park(TM) logo (50 units); (Center) a Velociraptor (25 units) and (Bottom) a T-Rex (25 units). One unit equals one minute of domestic long-distance calling.

For a retailer near you or to purchase the cards, consumers can call toll-free (800) 840-6715. Retailers interested in carrying the cards can also call this toll-free number.

Click here for a very large image (400kb) of the cards.
(thanks to Max Szoc)

I just got the Making of The Lost World yesterday, and now I can say for sure that this is an excellent book, an absolute must for any LW fan. You can order if online in The Shop.

The Lost World Theme song was played before the Stanley Cup Finals Game 1, last night (go Russian 5!), according to Russell Raymond.

For those of you who live in Manila, The Lost World will start on July 25th. Paul Daza adds that since this movie is more violent than the first one, it may be slapped with the dreaded "R" rating there.

Coming Tomorrow (probably). The new "Fan Fiction" section. I know that there are a lot of you out there that have written your own "Jurassic Park or Lost World stories", so in the newest section of Dan's LW Page, you'll be able to submit them for the world to see!