What Would A Real-Life Jurassic Park Cost To Build?

In the first Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum's character criticizes the scientists behind the attraction for being "so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should." As the events of the rest of that movie, and now the events of Jurassic World, have proven, the answer to that question was "no, they should not."

But a new fan video has a slightly different, more pragmatic question in mind. Namely (once you got past all the could-should stuff), how much would it cost to build Jurassic Park? As you might imagine, it's not for the faint of heart or the low of funds. Find out the answer after the jump.

Fandango Movieclips presented their estimates for the cost of a real-life Jurassic Park in a YouTube video. The total was calculated using figures from real-life parks, zoos, real estate companies, and more.

Surprisingly, the video finds that the expensive part of opening a Jurassic Park isn't creating the dinosaurs. It's the real estate and operating costs. 66 square miles of premium tropical island doesn't come cheap, you know. In all, Movieclips calculates you could open a Jurassic Park for around $23 billion, with around $12 million in recurring annual costs. Compared to that, Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World movie is a steal at $150-200 million.

However — and this is a biggie — the video totally fails to take into account the skyrocketing cost of insuring such an attraction. Jurassic Park was a disaster, but one that affected a small handful of people; Jurassic World was a catastrophe that killed or injured literally thousands of people. You know any survivors are gonna sue the crap out of InGen the second they get off that island. Good luck finding someone who'll fund and insure your third attempt to put ordinary humans in close quarters with vicious predators.

The relatively cheap, relatively safe Jurassic World is in theaters now.