Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan and Awkwafina in 'Jumanji The Next Level'
Jumanji: The Next Level began what Sony hopes will be a long and leggy run yesterday with $19.4 million in domestic earnings. reference, that $4.7 million it earned in Thursday previews is larger than any of the other films’ respective Friday grosses yesterday. Heck, it’s probably going to be about over/under where the other two wide releases (Black Christmas and Richard Jewell) end up for the whole weekend, but that’s grim news for later. The good news is that Sony’s surprisingly good The Next Level, a sequel to the surprisingly good Welcome to the Jungle, is capitalizing on its predecessor’s earned goodwill. Barring a fluke in either direction, Jumanji 3, starring (deep breath) Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Awkwafina, Nick Jonas, Danny DeVito and Danny Glover, should open with $50 million.
Direct comparisons to Welcome to the Jungle are challenging since it opened on a Wednesday in the heart of the Christmas season, but Jumanji 2 opened with $9.069 million on December 20, 2017 (counting $1.9 million in pre-release sneak previews). It earned another $7.5 million on Thursday and then didn’t have a single day under $9 million until January 3, 2017, or day 15 in its run, by which time it had earned $202.35 million of an eventual $404 million domestic total. It had Christmas legs on par with Avatar, concurrently with The Greatest Showman which earned $184 million from a $13.5 million Wed-Sun cume for the leggiest wide release run since Titanic. Anyway, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle earned $36 million over its Fri-Sun frame and $52.775 million over its Wed-Sun debut.
So, yes, it’s good that Jumanji 3 is earning in three days about what Jumanji 2 earned in five days, even if the film won’t have the same boost as its predecessor since that film had its fourth day fall right on Christmas Day where it earned $19 million. Still, Sony couldn’t open it right alongside Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (December 20) and they opted not to open right on Christmas Day (they’ve got Little Women ready to rock on the 25th), so going the weekend before everything gets crazy was the best option. As is, there are plenty of big movies (What Women Want, Ocean’s 11, I Am Legend, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first Jumanji) that opened on this weekend and thrived alongside large-scale Christmas competition.
As for “what went right,” well, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a textbook case of a franchise relaunch done right. It was technically a sequel to the 1995 Robin Williams flick, but it offered a premise (four kids get sucked into a video game and have to win the game as exaggerated avatars) that was both clever on its own and an inversion of the original plot. It had a kid-friendly cast playing somewhat against type and used the video game tropes as fertile ground for gentle mockery amid a fantasy adventure that took itself just seriously enough to be dramatically compelling. It looked like a lot of fun, and was a lot of fun, for folks who had no interest in the Jumanji brand. Cue $404 million domestic and $962 million worldwide.
Also, unlike so many franchise relaunches (Independence Day: Resurgence, Pacific Rim: Uprising) or origin story reboots (Fantastic Four, King Arthur, Jem and the Holograms) that offered either a rehash of its predecessor or a generic origin story that took the entire movie to get its heroes to the desired status quo, Welcome to the Jungle skipped the rehash and went straight to the zany sequel pitch right away. It didn’t act as a remake of the first Jumanji and then say “Hey, next time we’re going into the game!” It just went ahead and did the cool new gimmick and benefited accordingly. And while The Next Level does play a very similar game, it offers plenty of twists and turns on the formula, including several clever surprises that were not in the marketing.
We can talk long term guestimates (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, What Women Want and Ocean’s 11 earned over/under $185 million from $33-$39 million debuts) tomorrow, but Sony’s hard work in making a Jumanji sequel worth caring about is paying off again. The film is a lot of fun, and it’s pretty kid-friendly (my eight-year-old loved it) with enough of an edge to not feel patronizing. I’m hoping the likes of The Grudge (which looks like a pretty scary R-rated horror movie whether you care about The Grudge or not) and Ghostbusters: Afterlife (which looks like a solid Amblin-style coming-of-age melodrama) have learned the lessons of Welcome to the Jungle. Matt Tolmach, Jake Kasdan and friends created a movie that didn’t depend on the IP, and now the IP is bigger than ever.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMi6gFodHRwczovL3d3dy5mb3JiZXMuY29tL3NpdGVzL3Njb3R0bWVuZGVsc29uLzIwMTkvMTIvMTQvYm94LW9mZmljZS1qdW1hbmppLXRoZS1uZXh0LWxldmVsLXN0YXJyaW5nLWR3YXluZS1qb2huc29uLWtldmluLWhhcnQtamFjay1ibGFjay1rYXJlbi1naWxsYW4tbmljay1qb25hcy1hbmQtYXdrd2FmaW5hLWVhcm5zLTE5LW1pbGxpb24tb24tZnJpZGF5LWZvci1hLXBvc3NpYmxlLTUwLW1pbGxpb24td2Vla2VuZC_SAe4BaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZm9yYmVzLmNvbS9zaXRlcy9zY290dG1lbmRlbHNvbi8yMDE5LzEyLzE0L2JveC1vZmZpY2UtanVtYW5qaS10aGUtbmV4dC1sZXZlbC1zdGFycmluZy1kd2F5bmUtam9obnNvbi1rZXZpbi1oYXJ0LWphY2stYmxhY2sta2FyZW4tZ2lsbGFuLW5pY2stam9uYXMtYW5kLWF3a3dhZmluYS1lYXJucy0xOS1taWxsaW9uLW9uLWZyaWRheS1mb3ItYS1wb3NzaWJsZS01MC1taWxsaW9uLXdlZWtlbmQvYW1wLw?oc=5
2019-12-14 15:45:31Z
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