Synopsis

During an attack on a pack of Iguanodon, an egg is separated and ends up with the possession of a group of lemurs. The lemurs care for this egg and the young creature born from it, which they call Aladar (D.B. Sweeney). When meteorites hit Earth, Aladar and his family must leave their homeland. Away from home and as close to danger as they have ever been, they meet up with a huge group of dinosaurs, led by Kron (Samuel E. Wright) and Bruton (Peter Siragusa). All together they are trying to reach the nesting grounds, but it's not going to be easy.

What is the budget of Dinosaur?

"Dinosaur," a animation released in 2000, was directed by Eric Leighton, Ralph Zondag and stars D. B. Sweeney, Alfre Woodard. The production budget was $127,500,000, placing it in the high-budget range for animation productions of its era.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

While specific budget breakdowns are not publicly available, typical cost drivers for a animation production like this include:

Animation Production Pipeline: The bulk of an animated film's budget funds the multi-year production pipeline: storyboarding, character modeling, rigging, animation, lighting, rendering, and compositing.
Voice Talent: Celebrity voice casting has become standard for studio animation, with A-list actors earning $5 to 15 million for voice roles.
Music, Songs & Sound Design: Original songs and orchestral scores are central to animated storytelling. Sound design for animated worlds must be created entirely from scratch.
Filming & Locations: On February 26, 1998, while filming live-action footage in Poison Canyon near Trona, San Bernardino County, California, a crew member was killed and another seriously wounded when a camera boom struck a cross-country power line.

What were the major cost factors in Dinosaur?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "Dinosaur."

Animation Production Pipeline: Animation Production Pipeline is one of the primary cost drivers in animation productions of this scale.
Voice Talent: Voice Talent is one of the primary cost drivers in animation productions of this scale.
Music: Music, Songs & Sound Design is one of the primary cost drivers in animation productions of this scale.

How Does Dinosaur's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $127,500,000, Dinosaur sits in the high-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

After Earth (2013): Budget $130,000,000, Worldwide Gross $243,843,127
Ant-Man (2015): Budget $130,000,000, Worldwide Gross $519,311,965
Artemis Fowl (2020): Budget $125,000,000
Assassin's Creed (2016): Budget $125,000,000, Worldwide Gross $240,700,000
Australia (2008): Budget $130,000,000, Worldwide Gross $211,787,511

The median budget for wide-release animation films in the 2000s ranges from $30 to 80M for mid-budget to $150M+ for tentpoles.

Dinosaur Box Office Performance

"Dinosaur" earned $137,748,063 domestically and $354,248,063 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $127,500,000, the film performed strongly at the box office.

A film typically needs to earn approximately twice its production budget to cover marketing and distribution costs. For "Dinosaur," that break-even threshold was roughly $255,000,000. With worldwide earnings of $354,248,063, the film cleared that threshold comfortably.

Production Budget: $127,500,000
Worldwide Gross: $354,248,063
Net Return: $226,748,063
ROI: approximately 177.8%

At 177.8%, "Dinosaur" earned roughly $2.78 for every $1 invested in production.

Dinosaur Production History

On February 26, 1998, while filming live-action footage in Poison Canyon near Trona, San Bernardino County, California, a crew member was killed and another seriously wounded when a camera boom struck a cross-country power line. Disney was sued by the surviving crew member and the deceased's family, and the company was later fined $5,000 for violating worker safety laws. [Filming accident] On February 26, 1998, while filming live-action footage in Poison Canyon near Trona, San Bernardino County, California, a crew member was killed and another seriously wounded when a camera boom struck a cross-country power line.

The film's score was composed by James Newton Howard with choral directing by Lebo M, who did vocals for The Lion King (1994). In September 1999, it was reported that pop singer/songwriter Kate Bush had written and recorded a song for the film to be used in the scene in which Aladar and his family mourn the destruction of their island. Reportedly, preview audiences did not respond well to the song.

Awards and Recognition

4 wins & 23 nominations total

Critical Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews and an average score of . The website's consensus reads, "While Dinosaurs plot is generic and dull, its stunning computer animation and detailed backgrounds are enough to make it worth a look." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.