Máximo Decimus Meridio could not do anything in the face of the push of Disney’s dinosaurs
There is very little left until the premiere of the highly anticipated ‘Gladiator 2’, a film that until Ridley Scott has promised that it will be “even more extraordinary“than the mythical first installment. We will soon discover if that is true, but now it is time to look back to remember which was the film that dethroned ‘Gladiator’ at the top of the United States box office.
The film to which ‘Gladiator’ lost number 1 during its third weekend in theaters was ‘Dinosaur’, a big bet from Disney that has rarely been talked about again for a long time. At the time, its enormous visual display and enjoyed unquestionable success -it cost 127 million dollars and grossed 349 million worldwide-, but it never tends to stand out among the studio’s best animated films.
What could have been and was not
Furthermore, ‘Dinosaur’ was about to be a completely different film from the one that hit theaters in 2000, since the origins of the project date back to the late 80s with Paul Verhoeven and Phil Tippett behind the project. However, disney He could not agree with the director of ‘Total Challenge’ on the budget, which ended up causing both him and Tippett to jump ship.
That brought about the first revamp of the project, which had a much darker and more realistic approach when Verhoeven was going to direct it. Other directors passed through the project, again encountering resistance from Disney, who wanted to opt for a friendlier story with talking dinosaurs. Finally, the project was paralyzed when it became clear that ‘Jurassic Park’ was going to be released earlier.
The film ended up being taken up again at the end of 1994, completely discarding the initial plan to mix the use of stop-motion, puppets and miniatures to turn it into an animated film from the studio. Of course, achieving realistic CGI animation was a real challenge at a technological level and human that led to the film not finally being released until May 2000.
‘Dinosaur’ finally debuted at the United States box office with revenues of 38.85 million dollars, thus surpassing, for example, the 34.2 million with which ‘Tarzan’ had started the previous year or the 22.7 million of ‘Mulan’. ‘ in 1998. However, both films are remembered today with much more affection and appreciation.
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