Ever wonder how much it would really cost to build a real-life Jurassic Park? Jurassic Park Fansite does the math to break it down for you.
View this video on YouTube
Let's start with the first basic need, real estate.
In the original Jurassic Park film, there were two sites off the coast of Costa Rica. There was Site A, where the park was built:
...And Site B, where the dinosaurs were raised before populating the park:
Costa Rican real estate websites estimate the value of two islands with a total land size of 66 square miles would set you back about $10 billion.
Before unleashing giant monsters onto the public, you'll want to make sure you do all of your homework, which leads us to Research and Development.
Science is expensive, y'all.
Now let's add up the costs of creating these extinct animals.
Bio Arts, a lab in California that will clone your dog, charges an average $150,000 to clone a pup. Multiply that by 50, for the 50 different types of dinosaurs in the park and then add the cost of surrogates, embryo development, stem cell research, and gene modification and we're talking $8.5 million!
We can't forget about the most important detail: The dinosaur DNA found in mosquitoes trapped in prehistoric amber.
All of this brings our Research and Development total to a whopping $25,400,000.
Ok, now that we have all of these dinosaurs, we need to build the actual park.
This includes everything from the holding cages and electric fences to the grand Visitor's Center and all of the Jeeps, plus all of the attractions, too.
To research this part, the team behind the video looked at the average construction budgets of some of the worlds biggest theme parks.
The average cost to build a major theme park comes in at $1.5 billion.
According to public records, the Disney Parks branch of the Walt Disney Company spends $11.7 billion a year on operating costs.
If we're spending all of this money, we should probably put some cash aside to keep the dinosaurs alive.
One of the largest zoos in the world is the San Diego Zoo, housing 3700 animals that represent over 650 species!
According to the San Diego Zoo's public financial records, they spend approximately $207 million a year keeping the animals alive and thriving.
Grand total — $23,432,400,000.
And if you want to keep the park going, it will cost almost $12 billion a year.
