Walking with Dinosaurs (film)

Walking with Dinosaurs
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Neil Nightingale Barry Cook
Written by	John Collee
Based on	Walking with Dinosaurs
Produced by	Mike Devlin Luke Hetherington Amanda Hill Deepak Nayar
Starring	John Leguizamo Justin Long Tiya Sircar Skyler Stone Charlie Rowe Angourie Rice Karl Urban
Cinematography	John Brooks
Edited by	John Carnochan Jeremiah O'Driscoll
Music by	Paul Leonard-Morgan
Production companies	Reliance Entertainment BBC Earth Films Evergreen Studios
Distributed by	20th Century Fox (United States, United Kingdom and Australia) Reliance Entertainment (India)
Release dates	14 December 2013 (2013-12-14) (Dubai Int'l Film Festival) 20 December 2013 (2013-12-20) (United States)
Running time	87 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom[1] United States[1] Australia[1] India[1]
Language	English
Budget	$80 million
Box office	$126.5 million[2]

Walking with Dinosaurs is a 2013 family film about dinosaurs set in the Late Cretaceous period, 70 million years ago. The production features computer-animated dinosaurs in live-action settings with actors John Leguizamo, Justin Long, Tiya Sircar, and Skyler Stone providing voice-overs for the main characters. It was directed by Neil Nightingale and Barry Cook from a screenplay by John Collee. In the film, an underdog dinosaur named Patchi must find his courage to become the leader of his herd as well as become a hero for the ages.

The film was produced by BBC Earth and Evergreen Films and is loosely based on the BBC's 1999 television documentary miniseries of the same name. The film, with a budget of US$80 million, was one of the largest independent productions at the time. It was financed by Reliance Big Entertainment and IM Global instead of a major studio. The majority of distribution rights were eventually sold to 20th Century Fox. The crew filmed footage on location in the U.S. state of Alaska and in New Zealand, which were chosen for their similarities to the dinosaurs' surroundings millions of years ago. Animal Logic designed computer-animated dinosaurs and added them to the live-action backdrop. Though the film was originally going to lack narration or dialogue, 20th Century Fox executives decided to add voiceovers, believing it would connect audiences to the characters.

Walking with Dinosaurs premiered on 14 December 2013 at the Dubai International Film Festival. It was released in cinemas in 2D and 3D on 20 December 2013. Critics commended the film's visual effects, but derided its subpar storyline and the juvenile quality of the voiceover performances. The film grossed US$36 million in the United States and Canada and US$87.2 in other territories for a worldwide total of US$126.5 million. The Hollywood Reporter stated the film's global box office performance was disappointing in context of the production budget and marketing costs.