1993: A Dino-sized Summer

This is where it all began. June 10, 1993, I saw the sneak preview screening of Jurassic Park, a movie I'd been anticipating for so long. I'd been looking forward to it since it was first announced that Steven Spielberg was making the movie. I'd read the book, obsessively looked at any and all articles in Starlog, Entertainment Weekly, etc. I'd watched the trailers as many times as I could (recorded on VHS off the TV, since this was pretty much pre-internet, at least as far as movie trailers were concerned).

I'd loved movies before, and seen some movies multiple times in the theater, such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Beauty and the Beast, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  But this one was different.  It arrived at the right time in my life.  I'd graduated high school a few weeks before and my parents (who had been divorced for over a decade) got remarried and we moved from AZ to UT.  My life was a life in need of some escapism, and Jurassic Park fit the bill nicely.

In the year since its release, I saw the film over 25 times in the theater, with an additional couple of viewings of the 20th anniversary 3-D re-release, as well as dozens of times viewing it on VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray.

Here are most of the ticket stubs (the ones that haven't completely faded away).

The original viewing experience was unforgettable.  A sold-out screening in DTS-THX sound, seeing things onscreen I could've barely imagined.  On the drive home that night, I had been so overcome by the experience that I imagined dinosaurs peeking out from behind every building and tree we drove past.

Fast-forward 25 years.  As we enter 2018, Jurassic Park will be celebrating 25 years, and the newest sequel, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, will be hitting theaters.  My wife and I have wanted to transform our bedroom into a themed room for several years (ala The Anniversary Inn ), and a Jurassic Bedroom seems like the perfect fit.